my fourth year of college is over, and i'm feeling sleepy. dreamlike, even. i say "fourth year" rather than "senior" because it isn't my last. who can graduate on time these days? one summer of terrible summer classes (currently statistics...), then one more semester this fall.

reflecting, though, this year was fantastic. plethora of creative writing program internships, including co-hosting and co-curating long river live, which was an MAGICAL bimonthly performance series for writers, artists, and performers of all genres. the series is going on next year too, but my work is finished. i did a damn fine job.

le sigh. i'm peeking around the nyc job market for a job because it's likely i'm headed there as soon as i graduate. publishing house, maybe? art gallery? paid internship in writing or photography?... or more likely, barista...

Hellooooo,

I write to you all while enslaved by the library at UConn, studying for finals. One short and simple note...

PLZ go to longriverreview.com, and notice that a photo of mine is the main image on the home page! Yeah!!! If you check out the "Summer's Over" contest, it lists winners for poems written about the photo.

I also just recently got the position of poetry editor of the Long River Review- VERY pumped about that.

Will be updating this with art and things over break, which is almost here...

More Soon,

Joe Train

helloooooooooooo

I am fairly new here. Well sortof. I've been here for a long time admiring art, so I finally decided to put up some of my work.

I do a lot of photography and writing. At the moment I just have photography up. I have some questions for all of you! In all of my photos, I set the full view size to around 1024 pixels for purposes of decent viewing, but all of my actual files are of a MUCH higher resolution- if there are any requests for more detailed versions, please let me know. I didn't bother watermarking; someone told me it wouldn't matter much, only to the big famous deviant artists that get their stuff stolen a lot. Thoughts on that?

Notes on permissions... If you want to use my work in any way, YOU MUST ask permission, otherwise would obviously be copyright infringement, duh. I will most likely allow you to use it as long as you credit back to me, just please please please PLEASEEEEE ask first! Thank you. (post here or email thelifethemeaning@gmail.com)

Photography has always been a hobby of mine, but I don't know much about promoting my photos... Advice from some more experienced people would be wonderful. Look through my gallery, I think a lot of what I have can be used in many ways, I just don't have the connections!

Aside from photography, I also write. It's the focus of my life, what drives me. Poetry, essays, short stories... I am uncertain of putting my writing up here because I'm not sure what repercussions would be. If I have a poem online, would it count as publication and therefore not be able to be used in a contest? Am I at a high risk of being a plagiarism victim? I'm not sure. Anyone have any advice? I do want to get my work out there, and I do want to get published. Maybe putting it up here would be a good start.

Well that's all I've got to say for now... oh, also, something important: COMMENTS AND CRITICISM ARE MUCH APPRECIATED! I'd love some feedback, don't be shy.

Thanks for reading/looking/watching/stalking!

-J