So its time for some back story. My flight here was totally painless. I fallowed my three tenets of air travel and everthing world out great. For those of you who don’t know take these words and remember them!

1. Don’t Fly United
2. Don’t Fly Through Denver
3. For The Love of God Never Ever Fly United Through Denver!

You can find the whole story here if you like but I am happy to report that my flight to Germany was great. I mention this because while I was on my connecting flight from Frankfurt to Leipzig I noticed that the background music on the plane was none other then Jack Johnson singing about those tasty bananah pancakes. I found this so out of place, so completely not German that I just had to laugh. It wasn’t till I got settled into Germany a bit that I realized just how much media the U.S. exports. That is all I had to say about that really.

Back to the topic of air travel. I would like to note that Schmidi flew United to Germany and check in was so slow and the lines were so long that he almost missed his flight. To top it off, Daniel flew United as well and they lost his luggage. Thankfully he got it back but the inconvience only reiterates that which I stated above. We are leaving to go to another small German village that is the birthplace of Audi. Naturally, I am excited for the Horch car musiem even though that means no race cars. Horch, for those who don’t know, was the name for Audi before WWII. I uploaded new pictures in nearly all the Europe albums so check those out. That is all for today.

Burke Shartsis

Yet another day in Germany. Today marks the addition of another travel companion, Daniel aka Speakerbox. I am going to try and post a bit more often but at this point you should know nothing is certain. I woke up at my usual 8am and did a bit of reading. I finished the last book in the Harry Potter series yesterday so I moved on to finishing Living Buddha Living Christ. It seems that the water here just never gets hot enough during my showers. Schmidi agrees after being in The States as long as he has been. Maybe it’s because its so cold here. It snowed last night making this my first white Christmas. I know a few of my mid-west friends will be happy for me on that one. Today is a busy day at the Schmidt house as Ms. Schmidt is backing two ducks (normally they eat goose for xmas but duck is apparently leaner and a bit healthier). Mr. Schmidt is writing his sermon for tonight and we are off to finish some last minute shopping. It’s been a lovely day stay here and its starting to come to an end. We are buying our train tickets to Prague today (I can’t wait to see Jorolizzie). We are about to leave so I need to go. I wish a Merry Christmas to all who read this and I send my love.

Burke Shartsis

Ask and you shall receive. It has been a long time since I blogged, to long really. I finished the semester rather strong and while I never got around to mentioning it, my plans to see Europe seemed to have fallen in place as I am writing this from Germany. This trip has turned into a all iD Tech visit. I am currently staying with Schmidi but my trip will also include a visit with Salamander, Hermie, and Carat, oh and of course my lovely girlfriend (you might know her as Symmie or Lizzie). So I’m currently enjoying a nice day in Germany. The weather hovers around freezing and drops below in the shade and at night. Schmidi’s family is beyond nice and accommodating and while there is a language barrier we manage to get by on a German to English dictionary and lots of hand gestures when Schmidi isn’t around to translate. Anywho, stories will have to wait but I uploaded pictures to the gallery so check those out.

Burke Shartsis

Define: Blog - “A frequently updated journal or diary”

Sometimes I forget why I started a blog. I just remembered why a few moments ago. I just finished watching a really not that emotional movie but it kind of triggered a train wreck. You know that feeling of when you have been holding things back for so long and then when one small thing happens it just comes out. Sometimes this happens at bad, inopportune times and sometimes its just a silly Adam Sandler movie on tv. Well, I was sitting there and when the movie ended it just all came out. It was… for lack of a better word, real. I am now sick to my stomach and I feel like a train just hit me. It’s amazing how life changes. A friend reminded me recently of the role God plays in our lives if we let him. Well… Lord here I am. Show me your path, show me whats next.

Burke Shartsis

So I have been at home for the holidays and with it came some free time. I put it to good use by finishing up Sugarhill’s new online store. It went live two days ago and has been drawing lots of attention. With it came a small update to the website as well. Keep an eye on Sugarhill’s site and store as there will be periodic updates. So go take a look and help me out and buy something!

Burke Shartsis

I woke up this morning, after a dream filled nights sleep, completely restless. My apartment smells like bacon and Mike is gone. I performed my normal morning pattern of email, facebook, and scanning the news. I got up to wander around my apartment and stopped to look out my kitchen window. It’s a beautiful fall day. The tree outside my window has lost most of its leaves as the wind blows them around on the ground. I watched the mail man as he put the mail in my buildings boxes. As he finished, I realized that my restlessness was due in part to my desire for something to happen. I would be happy with anything really. I think I have been living like this for a few weeks now. Living each moment hoping something will happen in the next. Something exciting. Something worth being happy for. I suppose this moment is coming to an end. I hope something happens in the next…

Burke Shartsis

It’s 3:30 am. I can’t sleep. I’m not productive. I have Europe on the brain. I’ll try to start blogging more. Maybe I’ll I have more short posts like this.

Burke Shartsis

Well ladies and gents, this project has come to an end today. It has been a great week of true reality television but unfortunately all great things must come to and end. For What is Reality’s last day on the SJSU campus I decided to do something a little different and see if anybody would notice. Rather then the typical bench scene I have been using I decided I would place it in a very public space that allowed for viewers to walk around the piece. My hopes was that people would end up looking through to see someone standing on the other side looking back in a much closer proximity then the scenes from other days allowed. But, thats all done now. As for the future, this sculpture is looking for a new home. Anyone interested in purchasing this piece for their private collection or for public display else where is more then welcome to contact me. All funds raised from the sale of this project will go to the Help Burke Travel Fund as it is in desperate need of funds. Anyone looking to donate to this lovely charity is also encouraged to contact me. Below is a finalized map of my installations various locations on the SJSU campus from this week as well as pictures from Friday’s location. For anyone visiting for the first time a complete description of the project can be found here. Lastly, I am looking for an accomplished photographer willing to take some interesting photos of this piece as photography is not my strong suit. Anyone interested please contact me ASAP. Thank you to everyone who has supported me in this project, helped with its construction, provided feedback, and/or simply accompanied me in the middle of the night while I moved it. You are all appreciated…

Burke Shartsis

Day three has come and gone and What is Reality? will be staring in its last roll on the SJSU campus tomorrow so be sure to find it if you haven’t already. This week long exhibition has been a real fun experience for me and thank you to anybody who has taken the time to speak with me about the piece or sent me emails in regards to it, you are all very much so appreciated. Below are pictures from today and an updated map for those wondering where it might have been. For anyone visiting for the first time today looking for more information on the project there is a complete explanation posted here. Thank you again for your time and I hope you can make it out to see this piece one last time tomorrow.

Burke Shartsis

What Is Reality? made its third appearance on the SJSU campus today. From what I could tell people enjoyed it. I have yet to get any comments here on the blog so I can’t really tell what people think outside of what people have told me in person while I was shooting pictures. There was a family of squirrels around while I was shooting pictures so I couldn’t resist taking a few pictures. I threw them up in the gallery for anyone interested. Also, I would like to apologize for anybody who visited the site earlier today only to find out it was down. There were a few issues to be taken care of but all is settled. Anywho… for those who missed the piece today there is a map below showing its last three locations and be sure to keep an eye out for it tomorrow as it will, of course, be somewhere new. For anyone who discovered this project today and is looking for more information there is a full description of the piece posted two days ago here. That is all for now…

Burke Shartsis