Sophmore Year!!!

  “A coward dies a thousand deaths... a soldier dies but once.”-(Shakur"Tupac" Amur)

“My mama always used to tell me: 'If you can't find somethin' to live for, you best find somethin' to die for.”
 -(Shakur"Tupac" Amur)

  This year has been a very great year, it has brought us many good memories. Some better than others but that just depends’ on who’s getting into more trouble. I have met and made a lot of good friends this year, some I really don't consider hanging out with but that's just me. This year has also brought me closer to a lot of my old friends. Overall this year for me has been a big learning experience, not only in school but in life.


  When it comes to friends, I got the best. These people have taught me and stuck by my side threw the thick and thin. Let me start off by saying that my best friends and my brothers are Hiroshi, Andres and Ruben. These three dudes are my ride or dies’, we would take a bullet for each other. Besides my hanging dad, hanging out with these three locos has made me who I am today. Then there’s Jazmine , who has been in my life for the past three years. She has taught me so many things about life and especially about girls. This girl has taught that girls a big pain in the butt. My next victim is Matthew Lujan who I have just met this year. We have made some very good ass memories in and out of school. This right here is my dope half Mexican brother. Then there’s Julain, he calls me his dope half black brother, I don't why but I guess I'm going to roll with it. When it comes to friends, you can say I have made friends with the best of them.

  This year has brought us many good memories, like times we would do good and times we would mess up and get in trouble. There be this one day I will never forget, my friend Andres had just borrowed a camera from the school because we were going to film a little production. We filmed a scene where we go to McDonalds in Rubens truck. Rubens truck is just a one seat truck and, there was about like six of us all jammed into that little space. I had to hide in between everybodys legs because I was the skinniest one. So this lady from Mcdonalds comes out with our food. I'm all cover up in sweaters and clothes. This lady comes out with our food and they hit me with bag and I start moving and Ruben says" Shut up you don't want that duck tape do you!" and I start screaming hysterically and moving all around. The lady freaks out stops and listens for a while and takes off into the McDonalds. 10 minutes later we see a bunch of cops rushing to that McDonalds. Of course we did some more things and recorded it, I just can say what we did. So the next day we go to school and Andres has to return the camera, the teacher watches our videos and Andres gets suspended and kicked out of our school. Man was he pissed, but now we look back to that day and laugh our asses off. I could sit here and write about the other memories I have had that are way crazier than that but then I would be getting carried away, just know that the adventure has just begun.

  My story just keeps getting better and better. I know I'm going to have my ups and downs but I'm never going to break down. I learn something new every day and I teach somebody something new every day. A great teacher once told me "Cease the day." and thats what I plan on doing for the rest of my life.

Anything possible but nothings fo sho!!

"Get stupid, it's what we do good .Ghost ride the whip while we dancing on the hood."

-(Hicks"Mac Dre"Andre)

 
  Some might say lifes full of opsticales, some harder than others but for me lifes full of adventure. I spent a lot of time bitching and complaining  about how hard life is but in reality it's not. You just have to look at life at a different angle. I spent most of time always worrying about others and never stopped to think about myself. This is where I started to realize why I was put on this earth.

  Well I know I'm 16 but I'm living like a 21 year old. I love to have fun and make every moment rememarble because you live once and me I plan on living history and my mark on this earth. How? You say. Well I'ma start my story by saying that I'm a 16 year old graffiti artist who has 99 problems and a girl aint one. I know I won't become a millionare off doing art but for me it's for the love of art and thats all that matters.

  To many art is just a bunch of lines and wierd shapes cordinated very well but for me it's life. My art work reflects my life the colors the lines the style, they say a picture says thousands of words. Well I guess my art is my autobiography just in symbols and colors. Anybody can draw but few actually draw to express life. Art can express poverty, childhood, love and anything that the artist might be feeling at that moment.

   I've been drawing and painting for over 5 years now. Can you imagine a eight year old running wild with a sharpie. I used to tag my old elementary school, nothing to be happy about but I just had to let you know where I started. I started taking it serious in the summer of 08', at the age of 13. I came up with a local krew that me and some ex friends started, I was the original leader of a three man krew. This krew is going nation wide but let me tell you that none of them know eachother or are worth painting with. I have friends who have drawing and painting for a shorter period time and they're way better than them, but that's another story.

  I know I'm not the best role model because yes I'm a sinner but I'm also a winner. I try to not do bad but I'm going to do what ever I have to do to make it to the top even if it means biting the hand that feeds me. Now in days people are not slacking and are constantly doing this and I plan on leaving history for my childrens children to remeber me by.

"Anything's possible but nothings for sure, Got to take advantage of all opportunities and get your money you know."-(Hicks"Mac Dre" Andre)

Wisdom Qoute

-T.I.P-

"Stop bitching and live life."

Excuse my french but I didn't have another way to explain my lifestyle. I live life to the fullest no regrets and I move foward.Only looking back to the good and the bad to learn from mistakes. Nobody knows when we're going to go but till that day I'm going to live everyday like it's my last. I'm don't really to much worries in life and not only because I'm young  but because I have a great family, friends, and so many traits that will get me threw even the biggest of challenges.

  Living life to fullest, let see where I start. Ah, yes. Lets start by saying I love to have fun anyway I can, even if it involves getting into trouble because down the road where going to laugh about. I'm a serious guy, most of the time. You'll hardly ever see my mad or sad because I'm always laughing and having a good time. I hardly have any enemies and it's because of my personality, and to all the people who don't like me, they write me a letter which I never will read.

  I never tend to have regrets of what I do or what I have done. Life a bitch then you die, So I try not to stay stuck in the past. I move foward the only direction for me I guess. Everyday is a new day and this life is only borrowed to us, and I always try to make the best out of every situation wether be bad or good. I take everyday as it comes, well atleast on the weekends atleast.

  Friends, not to much to say but I got real friends who will ride or die for me and I got friends who I'll hang out with. I think I'm the luckiest dude on this earth, and not only because my friends are the best but because I also got a family who always has my back. Threw the thick and thin these people always lead me to the right path, when I already know my future is set.

 Life a rollercoaster it has its ups and downs, but what ever it is I'm going to along for the ride. The only way they're going to get me off is when my ride is over and the way things are going I don't see my ride ending till the big man says it is.
"Would you stay true to the game and route you chose to take, or would you break, take a dive in the game and go out like a snake."- (Hicks"Mac Dre"Andre)

"Treat Yourself Don't Cheat Yourself" -(Hick"Mac Dre" Andre)

I would like to be....

The person I would like to be for a day would have to be Can 2 a famous Canadian graffiti artist, who has been writing graffiti for half of his life. One of the best this graffiti writers to date, a New york wild style with a twist. Sponsored by Montana spray paint, one of the largest high quality spray paint company of this era.

 

  This guy is my idol when it comes to graffiti, his style is so clean and original. Many try to do it like him and many have failed. His color schemes and shading techniques are so amazing and for him it's cake. His can control is outstanding, like if he were using a pencil. Straightest, clean lines and even coats of color, it's like seen a super model walking into smiths, everybody is left in aw. I guess hard work does pay off, because he's been doing this for half of his life.

  Half of his life is a lot of practice. I've only been doing this for a few years and I'm already well known in Albuquerque. Like every graffiti writer he's been busted by the cops, and so have I.  It's nothing to be proud of, but he it makes you a smarter artist. It even makes you think if you really want to keep doing graffiti art, for me I guess I fell inlove once I sprayed my first can. Like a great artist once said " It's like the greatest thing next to sex". Many might think well that's stupid but in reality it's true.

   I guess this story went from my favorite writer to my own life story as a writer. It's not the easiest life, but then again life isn't easy period. All I can say is that I'm going to live my life even if I'm not Can 2 or Seen or Cope. Graffiti is my life and it will always be till God decides it's time for me to leave my last mark.

 
 

 

Poem

“Today is the day to start. Realize that you are not forever. Begin today.”


– Anonymous quote on a bathroom stall



Phrases scrawled on a bathroom stall

Holy scriptures of adolescence

Psalms of hormone-driven emotion

Etched in pencil

Or pink or black marker

I love so and so

Inscriptions of hope

Love not war

An occasional cruel word

The tribulations and triumphs

Of the teenage soul

Impassioned phrases

Seeming so insignificant

Meaning so much

Behind each of these statements

Lies a poem unwritten

Betrayal

 

Not to long ago I had a friend, as a matter of fact a "best friend' nearly my brother  but after many years i finally realized that he was just a joke, a buster. For all you people out there who don't know what  a buster is, a buster is someone who says they are something they're not. Anyway back to the story, well i've known this kid ever since the 3rd grade and he was my friend all the way till 9th grade. We had our problems but the truth didn't start unfolding till we got to high school.

So many secrets, so many lies. The person who I thought was my ride or die was really my enemy. I figured out that he would talk crap behind my back and try to get with my girfriend or should I say girlfriends. Everytime I would achieve or accomplish something he would lie to my face and be happy for me but later on I would hear people say he was saying stuff to make me look bad. I guess he was jealous, but hey I would be jealous of me too. I would always want to beat his ass but because of the brotherly love I had for him I never laid a fist to his face. When I found out he would try to get with my girlfriends I really didnt care because girls were like candy, and flavor any type I could have them all. That was when I was little kid, but now I got some more sense in me.

Even when it came to graffiti he was always putting me down. Starting back in the 4th grade graffiti was pretty big, I hung around a lot of kids that did art and graffiti. I'm not going to lie but back then he was better than me but after many years of practicing and never giving up I final put his ass shame. Now people are like speechless on my stuff and people tell him, dam you need some serious help. Graffiti and art is and will always remain my one true love, and I hate when kids like him abuse her and waster her time.

I could tell you this persons name but then you wouldn't believe my story. Once my brother, my bestfriend, now my enemy. I guess my mom was always right " You came in this world alone, so you don't need nobody". Once friends, now foes.

New Episode

  Speedy debuted in 1953's Cat-Tails for Two, directed by Robert McKimson. This early Speedy was a meaner, skinnier, rattier-looking creation with a sizable gold front tooth. The cartoon featured him outwitting a smart-and-stupid pair of cats, George and Benny (parodies of George and Lenny), aboard a ship.It would be two years before Friz Freleng and animator Hawley Pratt redesigned the character into his modern incarnation for the 1955 Freleng short, Speedy Gonzales. The cartoon features Sylvester the Cat menacing a group of mice while guarding a cheese factory at the Mexican border. The mice call in the plucky, excessively energetic Speedy to save them, and amid cries of "¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba!" (Spanish for "Go on! Go on! Up! Up!) courtesy of Mel Blanc, Sylvester soon gets his comeuppance. The cartoon won the 1955 Academy Award for Best Short Subject.

On a beautiful Sunday morning, right after Mass Speedy was on his way to the local market to get some cheese. When he sees Sylvester chasing Tweety Bird along the border. Speedy rushes over there to help him get away from the ferocious cat. Speedy and Tweety get chased into market, they hide in fruits and local junk. While Sylvester is roaming around looking for them. Speedy and Tweety come up with a greet plan to capture the cat. With Speedys great speed and Tweety great knowledge they make a trap. While Sylvester was turned around they were putting the plan into affect. While Twitty is finishing up the trap, Speedy gets Sylvesters attention. Sylvester then chases Speedy threw out the market and right into the trap. "WHAM" Sylvester runs into a fake wall while Speedy went right into the cut out mouse hole. Then Sylvester steps back and Twitty moves the prop. Sylvester still dazed see's what appears to be "Tweety" but does not see the cage around fake bird. He runs in there graps the fake bird and as he's doing that Speedy and Tweety shut the bird cage and lock it shut. Speedy and Tweety chuckle and walk away in the market. Later on that day Tweety had to go back home so Speedy walked him to the border and gives him a sombero and a pancho to remeber him by. They say their final good byes and Speedy dashes off into the sunset yelling "¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba!"

Courage & Bravery

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear. (Ambrose Redmoon)

To me courage and bravery can't work without one another. To many courage is an act of rising to the challenge when nobody is willing to and bravery is an act of rising to challenge even though you know you might not succeed, but to me they're the same crap. Being a boxer I have both of these traits  because it takes a lot of courage and bravery to step into that ring, knowing that you might get your ass kicked. Getting hit doesnt feel so good but I love the sport so much that it's fun. Sure I might become brain dead but just like any other athelete, if you love your sport your going give it your all. Just like the qoute says something else is more important than fear and that something else for me is my family. When ever I get into that ring I see many face but the only faces I focus on other than my oppents is my families, and to see them happy and smilling makes me happy and pushes me further. I might mess up every now and then but I will always rise to the challenge.

"Let me tell you how you measure a man, when his world start to fall, see how tall he stand. It matters not how many times you fall down, what matters most how many times you rise. Mistakes build character and character takes you places where money can't".-(Clifford"T.I."Joseph Harris Jr,2010)

Great Debaters

The Great Depaters follows the 1935 Wiley College debate team from its modest beginnings in Marshall, Texas, to national prominence. English professor/farmers' union organizer Melvin B. Tolson (Denzel Washington, who also directed) coaches the team, embodying worthy life lessons for both his students and his colleague, theology professor James Farmer Sr., the strict father of 15-year-old team member James Jr.. Among these lessons are his resistance to a brutally racist local sheriff  and his determination to overcome the pervasive racism of the time. The team overcomes a number of trials -- a brief and suitably tender affair between two members, their coach's incarceration and blacklisting, some rebellious drinking, and a harrowing scene in which they witness a lynchingn and their debate topics tend to underscore broader struggles. Ultimately, they make it to a final showdown with Harvard.

The TIme Machine

  If I was able to go back in time, I would go backto the 80's the era when hip hop first started comming up. Rap, B-Boys, Graffiti, and everything Hip Hop is. Life would be rough but not as rough as it is today. I would be in New York the birth place of Hip Hop, back when graffiti was every and djs would dj at local parks and local artist would rap to the beat with skill.

 
My favorite subject is graffiti, not only because its my passion but because back then it was more involved in life. Every where you turned there would be graffiti well atleast in the Bronx and in New York city. Back then it was real graffiti, not gang type stuff. To me thats what messed it up for us, gangs, and idiots who didn't do it for the love of art. I always say " It don't matter if i don't get fame, I love art and art loves me."

  I always loved to dance, ever since first saw Michael J. do the moon walk. I fell in love with the art of dancing and I would always try to dance. Come middle school, I started doing it more. Every chance I could actually, and coming from a mexican family, dancing is something we do every weekend or when were cleaning the house. I always wanted to learn how to break dance, but for me it's just another little kid fantasy.

   Rapping is just something I wouldn't be able to see myself doing, because I'm not the most fluent speaker you would ever meet. You can say I have slight speech inpediments. I'm good with words but when they come out it's hard to say, I always say " It's because I have to much stuff running threw my head." and it's true, I'm always getting ahead of myself.

  I guess, guess a time machine would be great to have, just so you can go back and relive some of the past. This is just a slice of the cake I would like to travel back to. One is reliving the past but fixing mistakes that should of never happened  is another, but thats another story.

  To all those that know me and to all those who are yet to meet me, I'm Eliud and only at the age of sixteen I'm one of Albuquerque's greatest graffiti artist, but before I get more into detail let me start from the beginning. 

  Well my story starts way before I could even write, back when I was just a baby. Drawing and coloring 100 paged coloring books from the Family dollar.I would need a new book every weekend, making sure I wouldn't Saturday morning cartoons. I used to love watching Spider-man and X-men, I guess all the colorful clothes and weird robotic weapons they would use made me have such a great imagination. I always thought when grow I was going to be a power rangers but I guess when I finally got older I decided tights and masks weren't me.

  Growing up in the South valley and the West side, I was always surrounded by gangs, drug dealers and kids who I know are probably sitting in jail or out causing destruction. As a little yougin, I was kind of drifting into that life.I had a ride or die homie we started doing stuff together and even hanging out with gangs, positive out come of that is that one of the gang members was an artist and I started combining art with gang activity.This is how I got influenced to do graffiti, and  8 year old kid out in the streets putting his name up and his gang. 

  Come around the age of 12 and I decided to start skating, yea I had the long hair and rocked out jewelry. I started drifting out of the gang scene and me my homie started skating and said we were going to leave that life behind. Funny story is that a couple months passed and he introduced me to his uncle a O.G. graffiti artist, Disko. I started going back and remembering people telling me I have a talent for art. I started seeing a lot more of the graffiti scene, and it was like I was watching my Saturday morning cartoons. You can say that once I spray my first can I fell in love. I wish I could explain the feeling but its so great it's unexplainable. 

   I wish I could stop but it's like a virus, it's in me and I can't take it out.

Change.org

The war in Iraq has opened the eyes to many Americans. Some have discovered that the war was our fault and not Iraquis. We sold weapons to Iraq, and paid other troops to train Iraqui soldiers. This was happening way before George Bush jr. , this was happening ever since Ronald Regan. The situation was more invovled with George, some say that Binlandin was paid to play the part, Bindlandin was top ten of the most wanted list. The whole plane crashed was all Georges cause because he paid  the Iraquis to do it, so Americans would be distracted from a even larger situation, what the situation is I don't know. All know is that Obama is making a change and is starting with Iraq.

Wisdom Story

  Just like the young man in the short story my way of throwing starfish back in the sea is by being a good friend. Growing up in a rough nieghborhood, I never really had many friends. My mom tells me that I would cry because I didn't have anyfriends and nobody wanted to play with me. The only friend I had was my cousin Javi but he lived 45 minutes away from me and I got to see him on the weekends.

 Hanging out with my cousin Javi everyweekend brought many new face, mostly girls, but you know how that goes. I'm not say he's gay or anything of that nature, but he was a ladies man. I guess I got a lot of knowledge about ladies from him. I also learned that being a good friend is to always be there and give and don't expect nothing in return.

  As the years passed I made more friends at school I met this really cool cat, we called him Antz.Don't really know why but we just did. We spent many years hanging out no problems, till he started acting like another person, he even made me regret something till this day. After many struggles of being a good friend and just getting treated like crap, I just gave up and ditch him.

  High school came and now I go to school with a lot of kids from my middle school and most of them are my real good friends and some aren't. I guess change is all a part of growing up, some kids I know are heading no where and some are on the right track. One girl i will never forget is my ex girlfriend from the past two years, because till this day we're still talking and even her mom says we just can't be without another.

   I guess what I'm trying to say is that friendships are like the last piece of cake, tast so good while it last but whens its all gone your never going to get that same piece back. My parents always told me you don't need anybody who's going to bring you down, but hang out with the right crowd who's going somewhere in life.

Diego Rivera

Well in this piece i see a married couple working out in the fields together, and the husband falls because all the flowers in the basket are to heavy. His wife or senorita helps him get back on his feet. Now what i feel, is love because the women is the stronger emotional person than the man. I feel like Diego was having issuses and Frida helped him get back on his feet, just out of the love and relationship they have together.

The New Colossus

The New Colossus


Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
—Emma Lazarus, 1883

I believe that this poem is saying that Americans are greedy, self centered people because they describe all imagrants or people who don't live there as homeless, poor, worthless people. I guess the french knew that Americans were so stupid that they could secretly put these words in the poem and make them believe its good.I am not going to lie Americans can be very igonarant and most of them think that they are the best, but not all Americans think like this and these are the smart Americans.

"Evil spelled backward is live(Unknown)."

“Dreams will get you nowhere, a good kick in the pants will take you a long way(Unknown).”

"I start a picture and I finish it. I don't think about art while I work. I try to think about life(Basquiat,Jean)."

“People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish. But that’s only if it’s done properly(Banksy).”

“When liberty comes with hands dabbled in blood it is hard to shake hands with her(Wilde,Oscar).”

"The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives(James,William).”

"He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life(Ali,Muhammad)."

"A champion is someone who gets up when he can't(Dempsey,Jack)."

"Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill(Ali,Muhammad)."

“Life is very short and there's no time, for fussing and fighting my friend. I have always thought that it's a crime, so I will ask you once again: try to see it my way, only time will tell if I am right or I am wrong. While you see it your way, there's a chance that we might fall apart before too long. We can work it out(Beatles,The).”

“A coward dies a thousand deaths... a soldier dies but once(Shakur,Tupac).”

“My mama always used to tell me: 'If you can't find somethin' to live for, you best find somethin' to die for(Shakur,Tupac).”

“I'd rather die like a man, than live like a coward(Shakur,Tupac).”

When they destroy you it destroys me, wishing that the heartless could see
You keep me alive and well, along with all the animals as well
Your beauty sourounds me, wishing that the heartless could see

My Own Haiku

What is life with no direction, no guidance to the right decision?
Many might draw arrows to get you somewhere, but they don't help get you there.
Life without you I can't imagine,lets face facts, because its happening.

Light in the Darkness Essay

I've kept myself in the dark and gray for too long now.

I think it's about time I step into the light and cease the day.

Sunrise Haiku

Waking up to you everyday, thinking that you are here to stay.

Birds are bumping, but even the beautiful melody doesnt mean something.

I come home and you are leaving, I guess you are beautiful but also decieving