Ask me where I will be tonight at 12:01 a.m.
I hear some of you saying: “BED!” Wait, back there in the cheap seats: “At the bar!”
Nope. Nope.
I. Will. Be. Here.

I’m in a magazine. So are a lot of other cool people. Did I mentioned I designed the magazine too? Yeah. You should come to the launch party of this magazine. It’s tonight.You should be there. You should find out where and here.

I needed to sit on this. I really needed to sit on this. And then, last night, I had a dream that I told Ellen Degeneres “Congrats on nailing the hot wife.” In which Ellen winked back at me and said:”Thanks, I KNOW!” Which finally made me get to this:
A few weeks ago, we all found out that homosexuals could be married… in California. This is awesome.
“Isn’t it great! You can go to California and get married!” My optimistic friend says to me as I bite in my salad at lunch.
“Uh huh.” I say swallowing a mouth full.
“You don’t seem excited… how come?”
Hold it.
I am excited. I’m happy. Dude. I was all about this issue, California passing the legalization of gay marriage, months ago when my friend Megan and Lott introduced me to this website. You can even find something that I wrote for it posted. The idea that a state was lobbying so hard to get this to happen made me giggle in absolute pride. Woah, people are working to make this happen! And when it happened and I caught the first headlines on CNN.com and then on BBC.com… I actually teared up a bit. A state so big with so many people working to make it happen did it… they got what they worked for. Seriously we have an African American and woman president running and we pass legal marriage in 2008.

Un-hold it.
Then, the last thing, “We have an African American and woman president running and we pass legal marriage in 2008!” YIPEEEE!!! This bothered me.
Why is it taking so long? Why is it 2008 and we are FINALLY getting here.

Hold it, again.
I’m not interested in the whole political conversation. I have had them. I know them. I understand them. I’m talking about why this is taking so long to process. It’s sort of like downloads. You know how when you have a bad connection to the internet, it takes forever to get a giant file to download on your computer? Usually it’s just because we have old versions of programs trying to process new information. Sometimes it’s just too much information to process and you need to turn off the computer and restart so there is a fresh approach to the issue.
Do we need to reboot?

Unhold it… again.
I explain to my friend, the one I’m eating a salad with, why I am not “so” excited about all this.
“I still have to leave my city to get married. I still have to go to another state in my country to do something that everyone else gets to do at a court house or in the backyard of their parent’s farm. I have to get on a plane and go somewhere else…”
She nods. Because she gets it. Lots of people get it. Many people get it.
And then there are many others people that just. don’t. get it.
I am happy and proud and appreciate the work that went in to making this happen. Please, understand that. But, it just blows my mind that it is 2008 and we are just now getting excited about these things, you know, black or women presidents or two same sex people can have legal rights like anyone else. Shouldn’t we have gotten excited about those things a long time ago? Why is all this taking so long to process?
Shouldn’t we be getting excited about other great things like the possibility of flying cars and iphones that don’t freeze and chips in our fingers that let us not have to carry bulky house keys in our pockets and robots that fold our laundry. You know, cool technology making our lives easier or faster so we can enjoy the important things in life… like being with the people we love.
But it seems like unlike technology, are brains aren’t evolving fast enough. Versions of our own programs aren’t developing as quickly… some people just aren’t upgrading.

So people have been asking me: “What do you do that makes you so busy?”
I tell about things like 2nd Story or designing a clients new logo or writing my new piece for UR Chicago or watching, obsessively, Sex and the City previews. But one of the best things I get to do with my time is be a faux parent or a “manny” if you will.
Caleb is Megan‘s and Christopher’s new baby. Once a week I get to come over for a bit and hang out while Megan has to go teach. We talk and philosophize and we even watch America’s Next Top Model(in which Caleb totally agrees that Tyra’s poses are tired).
In an effort to be more like Josh, I created a video blog of an average time with Caleb. Now, I’m no Michel Gondry when it comes to editing, but dude, I at least tried. No one can be like Josh. No one.

Untitled from Byron Flitsch on Vimeo.

See, I’m the type of guy that shakes presents to see what’s inside. I’m the type of guy that peeks when people say “don’t peek!” and I’m the type of guy that would post clips of the Sex and the City movie he found on the internet for those who are the type of guy or girl or gay like me.
Don’t watch this if you don’t want to see anything.

Dude. We just saw Johnny Depp. He was wearing a robe.
Still jealous much?

As we speak there is a movie being shot right across from me.
Kiddy corner from the building I’m in, people are walking in to a store front looking all 2008 and then coming out looking all 1920. Teenage girls are waiting around a chain linked fence flipping their hair as if they are getting ready for first dates. Cops are pushing people away from the fence looking like they are starting fights. People are on cell phones and pacing. Trailers doors are opening and closing and with ever slam of their doors the teenage hair flipping girls squeal: “Is it HIM!?”
The “him” is Johnny Depp.
Jealous much?

I’m not quite sure if it’s the song or the beauty of the animation or if it is the fact that if we don’t do something it will all go away… but every time I watching this my stomach drops.

3650 MTV Global Warming from Justin Gedzus on Vimeo.
I remember this so well. It was fifth grade and I was coloring a giant cartoon earth with green and blue Crayola markers. Our teacher, Mrs. Fruedenwald, made us save certain parts of all the countries.
“Don’t color those green… save some of the continents… I’ll tell you what to do later!”
It felt weird only coloring parts of the U.S., Florida and Georgia and only Italy and parts of Brazil and a little bit of Antarctica.
“OK. Now take a brown marker.” We all looked nervously at each other as if she asked to say “Shit” in front of our parents. “Color in the rest.”
And when we were all done our Earths looked nothing like Encyclopedias or globes. They looked… dirty.
“In 2010, if we don’t learn how to take care of our Earth we will look like this… or worse.”
It seemed so far away when you are ten.