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Here's some more old scanned photos:





Dad.


High school girlfriend Stef at a school dance. I didn't go, of course. (I boycotted those things).


Early high school girlfriend Melissa as a child.




Mom.


The room that I lived out of for my first few years in Puerto Rico.


Halloween 1998.


Munchin' tacos in Puerto Rico.


Niece Victoria.

My buddy Jesus.


Neice and nephew, Lance and Victoria.


Raf.


Sal.


My sister and I.


Emilio, Dominique, Jesus, Sal, Me, Raf, Will, and I can't remember the kid's name on Raf's lap.


The old crew. Me, Joey, Jason, Raf, and Barrington. Boy, was I hesitant to upload this one. This is us all in our b-boy stance.


My high school girlfriend, Stef.


At a blue berry farm.

Here's some more scanned photos:


I believe I was 16 or 17.


I was about 18 years old here. Trying to learn the cuatro. (I can still strum a few basic aguinaldos!)


Some Puerto Rican graffiti from the 1990s.


About 17 years old. Summer trip to Puerto Rico.


My buddy Jason when he was a kid. How I got this photo, no idea.


16 years old, I believe.


My graffiti artist pal, Justin. In his b-boy stance.


Rafael and Will during Halloween 1998.





My niece Victoria and I in the parque de las palomas.


Will at Six Flags in Atlanta, Georgia.

I dug up an old shoe box of photos. I smuggled a couple into work to scan and post them. Enjoy.


Me in my pee-wee suit. Boy, was my father skinny.


I don't know what the hell he was doing, but here's a photo of my grandfather. Looks like he's doing a chicken dance.


Aunts and uncles. Kickin' it old school style.


My nephew and I. Boy, it's been almost a decade since I've wore jeans.


My mother as a baby. Check out the folks in pajamas in the background.


My uncle and I. He does his stretches every morning. I decided to join him this day.


My two brothers. Orlando and Orlando. (Seriously. I'd call one "Orlando Dos" just to distinguish the two as a child).


From left to right my sister Sandra, my cousin "Bubu" , yours truly, and my nephew Alejandro.

Many many years ago my grandmother built a tiny little table for miscellaneous usage. Shortly after moving to Puerto Rico I quickly confistated the table (which was an escombro at the time) and quickly hogged it up with broken computer screens, books, lamps, and whatever my needs called for throughout the years. But there was one problem: grandma was a very tiny woman and she made the table to accommodate her tiny little legs. The table was so short that the top was at the same level as my knees while sitting. Quite uncomfortable. Thus, the table was only had short-term and temporary uses.

That was until I acquired a new computer to accompany my new home recording studio and thus needed a place to accommodate my "play" PC. (The "new" computer is actually my reincarnation of a computer my father just tossed out.) So what better place to put a computer than in my own bedroom? (Crystal would shoot me just as much as I'd shoot her for putting at television in the room). I've had that short grandma desk stuffed in the corner for quite some time now, and decided that the computer would fit nicely.

Facil. I just hammered out the old legs, cut some longer ones, and utilized my God-given male memes to "implant" them into the old table. Viola! But yet another problem: the color of the table (a terracotta brown) didn't really match the legs (a light brown). Going through the trouble of matching the colors would be a pain in the ass, not to mention the original color wasn't that magnificent to begin with. Thus I dished out some left-over supplies from my Primitive Man mural and coated the table with three layers of red paint I watched Jessica Alba's "The Eye" (which sucked pretty bad, actually).



Bam.

By the way, the books on my built-in shelf are actually in sections. Once upon a time they were actually in Dewey Decimal system (thanks mom, for obligating me to remember catalog numbers whenever you took me to the library as a child) but it was a pain in the ass to keep them organized. Your currently viewing the geography, reference, international politics, colonialism, and religion sections. Those books stacked on the right compose my "to read" list. Books include those referred to me by readers, books acquired on recent trips, and those given to me as gifts.

Neat gallery from French photographer Denis Darzacq. Reminds me of Chinese photographer Li Wei featured on this site a few weeks ago.

My Internet has been out all weekend. Within that time I have cleaned my entire house, wash all my rugs, read two books, installed ceiling fans and painted a mural. Check it out:



The mural is a copy of an image that I found laying around on the Internet about a year ago. I'm not sure as to where it comes from or who made it:




Before. Nothing's wrong with a Puerto Rican flag - we all know that - but I wanted something new. (No fear, the flag was relocated).


The projector image with the blue already painted in.


The blue.


The yellow and red.


The finished mural minus the black lines.


Yours truly.


Starting on the black lines.

It was a major pain in the ass to get a hold of cans of "normal" paint. Store after store carried glossy, protective, and an array of "lemon suave" and "lime karma" paints. "Don't you just have normal green paint?" "Um... no sir. I can mix some for you, though." I actually had to get the four colors mixed. "Gamma Green" was the closest thing I can find to *normal* green on their color wheel. What's happened to our society that a paint store with thousands of color combinations don't have normal green paint?

Wonderful Latin American photo essays from Jan Sochor.

From the bowels of the Internet.

Pachy Lee from Venezuela always sends me these crazy photos of bootleg Venezuelan shots. She just hooked me up with the following flickr collection of literally thousands of them. Here are some of my favorites:

I'm diggin' this. By Peter Beard.

If you notice, she's coloring thick, wet lines on the napkin in order to rip it with ease. Genius!


I didn't even ask her to do that.


She digs riding planes cause she can chew all the gum she wants (to avoid having her ears pop).





I just had to snap this one.

I just noticed how clean and clear photos can be under those new florescent light bulbs. Kinda' makes me wanna change all the bulbs in my house and walk around looking through my digital camera screen.

Amaia coming to me because she hurt her eye.


She opted for ketchup on the side and proceeded to de-construct and dissect her hotdog.


She thought the walkway was the coolest thing.








She dug the goats.


Chomp.

Amazing photos from Chinese artist Li Wei. Click here for more.

I'm also trying to show her some of the ridiculously basic sign language that I've learned in the last few months. Maybe by showing her a sign or two then she will be motivated to learn more of it. Not only does it help one sympathize and understand persons with disabilities but it's also easy to learn and opens doorways for her professional future. Imagine if she learned a sign a day for the rest of her childhood. By the age 18 she would already be able to translate. "Stop being silly!" grandma tells me. "You have to teach her Spanish first!" Very true. Still, wishful thinking, eh?

My father is visiting my daughter Amaia for the weekend. He sent me the above photo. I will be flying into Tampa to pick her up to spend a few days in Puerto Rico next week.

Road tripped with Derek and Awilda through Caguas and Ponce during New Years Eve. Spend that New Years at her aunt's house in Guayama.


I was trying to poke it with a straw. It bit off a chunk. I felt kind of bad about it later.

















Old lady trying to get a $1 from us.





You can tell by the expressions on our face that I was trying to explain some abstract socio-economic theory.




















I actually did that on purpose. It really looks like I got hit in the eye with a fire cracker.

"Wu-Tang... Wu-Tang... Wu-Tang is in your brain!"