Photo by Tao Lin
I look back on my life
and think about critical crossroads
and ask myself questions
about what makes me ‘alternative’
in relation to society.
s00 much stuff ‘made me’
and I am still trying to ‘understand’ how ‘I’ happened
Did my parents love me?
Did my parents make over $100K?
Did my parents drive a minivan?
Did my parents allow me to make my own fashion choices at a young age?
How much did I want to ‘be accepted’?
How ’seriously’ did I take ’social groups’ in middle+high school environments?
Did I ‘have a gf/bf’ at a young age?
Did my parents try to construct the foundation of my self-image ?
Did I grow up in a city
Am I an ‘outlier’?
Should I have read more books as a child?
Did my parents get divorced?
Did my parents let me listen to rap, even though I lived in a white context?
Did I ‘experiment’ with drugs and alcohol ‘before I was ready to handle it’?
Did I ‘make fun of poor kids’ without knowing why I was ‘better than them’?
Did my parents secretly hate minorities, teaching me not to respect them & only expecting them 2 ‘bring me chips and salsa b4 a meal’?
Was I ’sad’ about the OJ Simpson verdict?
Did my parents/me take ‘youth sports’ too seriously?
Did I have a sibling who was better/less respected than me?
Did my parents establish solid relationships with teachers, or did they just ‘drop me off’ at school?
Did I have a computer when ‘the internet’ was first invented?
As I grew up with a computer, have I been unable to use it for anything ‘productive’ and has this impacted my ability to contribute to my employer?
Do I know how 2 get vulnerable, or am I just like my [parent who h8s emotions]?
As I grow older,
I feel like I have more in common with more ppl
realizing that we had the same childhood
and that we are all ‘kinda mediocre’
but searching for differentiating gimmicks.
////Makes me kinda sad
Sometimes I wish my differentiating gimmick was something
that was both ‘beneficial to society’ and ‘had a salary of over $250K per year’
but I’m probably being unreasonable.
Not sure if I would rather ‘find the cure for cancer’ or ‘be in a relatively popular band.’
Would probably have to make an ‘excel spreadsheet’ of pros+cons
Just glad I’m not a mainstreamer
and satisfied by the goals which have forced me to be ‘alternative.’
Don’t want to ‘have a family’ and ‘live in suburbia’
Don’t want to ‘go 2 church every Sunday.’
I think I would enjoy stuff like ‘falling out of love with my wife after she had 2 kids’
and ‘resenting my kids for being lil ass holes’
Do yall ever wish that u could be like that movie “Eternal Sunshine of the Ace Ventura”
and erase ur past
and 4get about U, Me & Every1 We Know?
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I got on my all-terrain vespa and Created My Own Route
and I ‘got lost’ but told myself that ‘finding my way’
created a journey which was meaningful
The alt route
The alt route
The alt route
I am chilling on it.
r u?
Current Music: Robert Frost – 2 Roadz (Grizzly Bear vs Animal Collective Relevant in 2k9 Remix)
Current Mood: Sad abt life
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IAmCarles.com
23 Comments
was just going2take this pic in MPLS yall
send it to all my friends
~*WeIrD*~
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Man, it passes right by me.
It’s behind me.
Now it’s gone.
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maybe you should volunteer at a homeless shelter.
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//////////Reply by louis
//////////Posted March 12th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
@Nick, living in a homeless shelter would be more meaningful u kno?
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//////////Reply by dumpering
//////////Posted March 12th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
@louis, went to a homeless shelter once dressed in old gap clothes and pretended i lived there. was sort of cool. it’s like paying a hooker an hour’s wage and just talking to her.
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//////////Reply by White Blipster
//////////Posted March 12th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
@dumpering, Well played sir
//////////Reply by dumpering
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
@White Blipster, i’m a ma’am
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had a dream about u last night. u were just ’some bro.’ we talked 4 a while. at times, u were acting kinda faggy but i was ‘ok’ with it. then, u disappeared, just like dad. miss u carleserton. u r important 2 me
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i’m a published cell phone photographer
damn
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//////////Reply by White Blipster
//////////Posted March 12th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
@tao, 1 copy of ‘SHOPLIFTING FROM AMERICAN APPAREL’ please.
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Should my friends and I stay in school or go home and drink NATTY ICE?
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I drive a minivan. Shaggin’ Wagon, natch.
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What is it with you writing out these long ass lists of sarcastic questions every second post?
How many times do you think you can use this “gimmick” before it becomes gay?
Keep beating that dead horse.
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sorta want to join a profession that is an “institution” like baseball, or wall painting or something w/ standardized ethics – so i don’t have to be an individual or a person. don’t want to have to think about my choices, just want to think stuff like a good baseball player always hussles to 1st base, so i’ll make sure to always hussle to first base. know what i mean?
then i’m just filling a role that history has created for me, and trying to fill it as best i can.
sorta think that explains why i’m moving into panoramic photos in 2k9 – like you said, i want to see myself in context and as a smaller part of a larger whole.
so weird, how when it was Jan 1 2k9, i felt like 2k9 wasn’t all that different from 2k8 and i couldn’t even see that 2k9 would be different much less how it would be different. but now that it’s march – I feel like 2k8 was so long ago that i can’t even understand it. Just seems like everything has changed since then. Really think music / fashion / relevance / humor has all changed. things are so different now. Can’t even imagine how i could survive in 2k8 w/ what i know now. 2k8 seems so outdated already.
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//////////Reply by von colander
//////////Posted March 12th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
@??, Nice.
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//////////Reply by Switters
//////////Posted March 12th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
@??, Things are now moving at BLOGSPEED
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//////////Reply by anonie
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 2:39 am
@??, wayyyy
but just the last part, TIME, not the first
(damnit that is what every1 wants and that is why no1 ever fucking succeeds)
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Carles, all you need 2 do is fngrbng an AA model! That will make everything right with the world. I know it!
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USE
ALT
ROUT
Read those letters vertically, and you get:
U AR SLOE. E TU? T.
Now you understand.
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//////////Reply by louis
//////////Posted March 12th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
@BeatinOff2JaneFonda, maybe its a “sign”
Alto Uterus?
A Loser Tutu?
A Outer Lust?
A Utter Soul?
A True Lotus?
Eat Our Slut?
Ate Our Slut?
At Euro Slut?
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//////////Reply by dumpering
//////////Posted March 12th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
@louis, do u want 2 cyber
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The second I saw that picture a smile was brought to my face and I couldn’t help but lol.
then i realized that none of my family or friends would have the slightest idea of why it would get that kind of reaction out of my and that none of them would even take notice of it. kinda sucks.
good post crls
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LMAO…CRLS I AM DYING OVER HERE….!!!!!!!!!!!!
use alt route….
with a huge poem attached to it…
lmao…
i love this blog
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Carles that’s my fav robbyfrostbro poem!
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FUCK CARLES/TAO LIN
I thought it was clever when I saw it, too.
But, uh, it’s funnier when it says “Seek Alt Route”.
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Crls let’s be outliers 2gether n end ur search for the most alt couple <3
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yay good post
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Its just lilboy blue and the man on the moon, y’all. Where does it all go(via Magnolia death deathbed secene)?
<3 u gettin vulns crls. never felt this close b4
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i was there, miss tht sign
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“mediocre people do exceptional things all the time” – the OkGoBros
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carls, why did you adobe creative sweet the nyu flag out? we would have been proud to be culturally relevant via your blgg.
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im not hatin
but shit dude
you have no probs
stop being a blubbering pansy
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totally walked by that sign this morning.
http://blog.jjubela.com/2009/03/reblog-hro-alt-rout.html
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