The Knitting Factory was this music venue that was located in downtown Reno, NV. This was where I went for my first rock concert. I remember waiting in line to see the rock band Seether and the excitement of being able go into the venue had me restless. I would go to a few more concerts here up until the the venue closed down and reopened under a new name and management.

Aces Tattoo Shop is located in Reno, NV and my favorite tattoo shop I have been to to get work done. Growing up, I would always pass by this place on my way to school and I loved looking at the flash sheets they had displayed on the wall. I used to get yelled at by the shop owner to leave, mostly because it was not the best environment for a kid. The environment inside the shop was this rock and roll, rebellious, and artistic lifestyle which attracted me more to it. When I would get to school I would try to redraw some of the work they had. This shop has had several different locations but my favorite is displayed below.  This shop left a big impact me because its what got me into drawing.  This shop has had several different locations but my favorite is displayed below and I especially like this night photo of it at night.

The Nugget (RIP) was a small hole in the wall casino that was located in downtown Reno, NV. I decided to make a post on this place not so much for the casino but for the diner that was a main attraction for the casino.  Every night, especially the weekends this place would be packed with people trying to get their legendary “Awful Awful” as they called it which was a giant burger with a big basket of fries (I could never finish the entire thing). I would go there with friends from high school to grab a bite to eat and hangout. Besides eating the food, I really liked passing by it during the night. The flashing lights and big sign out front, it really had a positive impact on my life when I was younger

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The Spectrum Center formally Time Warner Cable arena is another building I associate with good times. My family is huge into basketball and growing up we were fortunate enough to have season tickets to the Charlotte Bobcats (now the Charlotte Hornets) and the spectrum center was their home court. Those memories remind me of some of the best times with my younger brother. We are a historical bad NBA franchise but theres a sense of charm that comes with that curse. It was beyond rewarding when the team finally made the playoffs in 2014 and it being such a hatable team brought the few charlotte fans closer. Ive been to plenty of other sporting areas and something I always miss about the Spectrum center is that Carolina bbq. Its a vinegar based sauce that is extremely regional and hard to find outside of NC and SC.

Not sure what the actual name of the building is but after asking many others who’ve gone there, everyone agreed to call it hell. This building is located on Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California where recruits endure 13 weeks of hell of become a Marine and is the receiving building where recruits start bootcamp. This building (along with the drill instructors who made my life a living hell) had a major impact on me because it is where I started to “grow up” and becoming a more responsible person. There are three parts of the building that I will always remember and they are the yellow foot prints that are located outside of the building, the contraband room, and the phone room. Ask any former Marine  or go on youtube and you will get a very good detailed look of those three areas and why most former Marines will tell you exactly every detail of what they experienced when entering that building.

A building I do not associate with positive memories is Appalachian New River Veterinary clinic. Growing up we always had animals, several dogs, cats, and for a brief time a baby wild bore that my brother rescued on a hunting trip. Now that I am a bit older I have a better understanding of veterinarians but my memory of that place is always tied into the death of animals I loved. It wasn’t the clinics fault but its hard for a child to process that at a young age. I have a dog now and the vet in Oklahoma is actually a really positive place. Whenever I take my dog in for a checkup I spend my time asking the vet about all aspects of dog ownership and its a really educational tool.

One of the most impactful buildings in my life was the Banner Elk cafe. The Banner Elk cafe was a restaurant in the center of the small town I grew up in. It was owned by my good friends father who was also my soccer coach growing up. Often times after practice of a big game we would go back to the cafe and eat pizza and watch sports together. In my early years the Cafe was a place where I made friends, and bonded with my teammates but as we all got older and the team broke up the Cafe turned into something new. It was where I had my first ever job at the age of 16 and where I learned the importance of hospitality and work ethic. Working at the cafe in thought me so many life lessons and it was my first real taste of the real world. If you’re ever find yourself in the small ski town of Banner Elk, NC do yourself a favor and order the baked penne pasta and thank me later.

One building that affected me in a positive way early on in life was the Sugar Mountain Ski lodge. I first encountered this building my first winter in North Carolina at around 8 years old. Prior to living in NC, I lived in a beach environment and had no idea of the concept of snow sports ( a pastime that grew to be a huge passion of mine to this day). My time spent at Sugar Mountain ski lodge was spent eating breakfast and making friends before a long day on the slope. The lodge was a den of warmth in all senses of the word. If it was a particularly cold day you could go inside and warm up. It was also warm in the sense it felt like a community. There would always be tourist but the local kids like myself treated the lodge as a clubhouse. It was the home of thousands of card games, laughs, and memories. To this day, skiing Sugar Mountain is what I look forward to most when I return to NC for Christmas.

Price Hall is home of the business school here at ou and its where the majority of my classes take place as a result of being a business major. Personally I really like the timeless design and style of price and i enjoy being in the building. This hall has had a positive impact on my life by helping me realize I’m finally taking major specific courses and on the track to graduate one day. While its just another hall here at OU, I think it stands out with its timeless style like the Bizzell Library and the administrative building. also no matter where i’m going on campus, I always seem to walk by or see Price hall as it’s in the middle of campus.

Phillips Exeter Academy is a private highs school founded and ran in Exeter, New Hampshire. While Louis Kahn may not have designed and built the entire building, he certainly built the library and dining hall. Worked on from 1965 to 1972, it is truly beautiful. Rows and rows of books are on display with circular concrete outlines and wooden shelves. The dining hall part sits at the bottom with marble like floors to read and it. It is a modern looking library and one I would like to visit sometime.