This is going to appear in a link at the bottom of every post at some point. Once I get my merch in. I am going to have a SHOP link, and FAQ link and a HELP link at the bottom of all the posts to go along with the SHARE THIS link that is at the bottom of the page now. Very exciting. Also on the agenda for the page is a design over hall and tons of YouTube videos. On Monday I have a ton of stuff to go up: Flaming Bag Head: Round 2, Andrew WK photos, BA girl Mayhem gallery II and um… maybe we will save some stuff for Tuesday: my dissertation on the lyrical genius of R Kelly and BA girl Apathy gallery II. Let’s just see what happens. Also, lastly, it is your lastly chance to VOTE for my photos. I came in dead last in every category, but maybe you all were just waiting until today to vote and I will win in a landslide 30 minutes from now… On to the FAQ.  Oh, also, if you have any other questions that should be on here… let me know.

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What is Driven By Boredom?

Driven By Boredom is my motto. The basic idea is that whenever I get really bored in life I have to come up with something to do. Usually that manifests in some sort of creative out put. The idea being that I need to use boredom as a motivating factor in my life. Not everyone has the luxury of having nothing to do. Luckily, I did very little work in college and had plenty of time to make this dumb website. Now I force myself to have time for this page, even when I am not so bored.

What is Drivenbyboredom.com?

Drivenbyboredom.com is a website that I started my sophomore year in college as a way to house a number of projects that I was working on online. I wanted to be able to point my friends to things I was doing and have my own personal URL. I wanted my own email account and I wanted to be able to upload the photos I was taking. I had recently made a very successful photo blog, but I was sick of it and wanted to start something else. At the time blogging was not what it is today, and blog sites like mine were part of a genre of websites called E/N sites or everything/nothing. E/N sites mostly consisted of a blog that was constantly linking to other sites, videos and pictures. What set DBB apart from many of the other E/N sites is that DBB was 100% original content.

Currently Drivenbyboredom.com is mostly a party photo blog although I hope it is a bit different from some of the other party bloggers. I try to post a lot of different things on this site, but I shoot so many parties that this site has become a party blog. That is not what DBB started out as 7 years ago, and it probably wont be a party blog 7 years from now. This site changes as I do. Just keep checking back…

Who are you?

My name is Nate Smith, but everyone has called me Igor since 1995. Want to know why I am called Igor? Watch this. I was born in 1980. I have a BFA in photography and film from Virginia Commonwealth University. I also attended Penn State University for two years before I transfered to VCU. I manage a band called the Gaskets. I do freelance photography and I do make a good amount of my income from it, but I also work part time at a hotel bringing people food that I cannot afford. It is humbling and miserable, but it allows me a very flexible schedule and the ability to spend over 30 hours a week on this site.

Why can’t I download photos from your galleries?

You can. It’s just the program I use is unfortunately confusing. Click here to figure out how to do it.

What does NSFW stand for?

NSFW stands for Not Safe For Work. In the case of my web site it means their is probably a nipple or two somewhere in the galleries. Most work computers have my site banned anyway, but just in case, you might want to keep away from the NSFW galleries on your office computer.

How can I contact you?

You can email me at igor@drivenbyboredom.com or you can find me on MySpace. I recommend adding me because you can get site updates ever few days VIA bulletins.

Last night was one of the most insane of my life. You see, I don’t do drugs recreationally. As you may know, I don’t even drink except for on my birthday and New Years Eve. I was straight edge until I was 19. When I was 19 someone offered me crack and I did a hit just so I could say that the first thing I ever did was crack. I just thought it was really funny to be straight edge, and drug/alcohol free my whole life, and then doing crack first. I did like two hits, and I didn’t really know how to inhale right. I barely got high, but I did smoke it out of a light bulb. The next time I tried anything else was when I got drunk on my twenty first birthday. Later I tried several drugs, only once, just to see what it was like. I tried to attack my friends on Mushrooms, I tripped for 60 hours on way too much AMT, and I watched my house almost burn to the ground on Acid. Basically, every time I try a drug something insane happens. Last night was no exception. I thought I was done doing drugs forever. In the mid-late 90’s many of my friends were club kids. The DC rave scene was one of the biggest in the world at that time. All my friends did all the party drugs. In college one of my best friends dealt ecstasy in huge bulk. But all that time I never tried E. One of my rules is that I don’t pay for drugs, and I figured no one would give me E for free. Until last night. I was given 2 E pills and with out too much thought I took them. I was with OJ at the time, and when he found out I just dropped two of these pills at once and it was my first time he sort of freaked out. The first hour was awful. I got all hot and numb. I felt nice, but that is not why I do drugs. I don’t want them to be fun, I want them to tear my mind up and tell me something about what my body/mind is capable of. I want drugs to blow me away. Instead I was hot and bored. I eventually convinced the people I was with to walk to a friends house. Being outside was great, but everyone else just wanted to sit around. After a few minutes at my friends house I needed to leave. People were just annoying me for no reason. It was not really fair to them, but I was sort of freaking out. I just wanted to be outside and talk to OJ. So I talked him to going on a walk for me. I told him I didn’t want to walk through Washington Square Park because I wanted to see bright lights. He took me on a trip through SOHO and around the West Village. At some point I didn’t know where I was and I was sort of freaking out. I wanted to be close to something I knew so I would be safe if I went crazy. So we walked back. On our way back I felt a breeze and I was really enjoying it. OJ said there would be a nice breeze in the park, so we walked back through it. As we got to the middle of the park some kids just started running through the park screaming. Then we saw a large group of people chasing them. OJ and I turned to watch what we thought was going to be a fist fight. I was just about to pull out my camera when we saw white flashes and heard gun shots. They were standing just a few feet from us firing off about 5 or 6 shots. I was so fucked up on E that I couldn’t really figure out what was happening. OJ said the gunshots were headed right past us. I don’t even know. It was just like a movie. Everyone started running. I just stood there watching. I wasn’t scared at all for some reason. OJ grabbed me and told me to run. So I did. All I remember was running away, and I don’t think I was running very fast. Some of the guys involved were running behind me. Two cops ran up, both over weight, fumbling to get their guns out. The cops asked people what was happening, and one of the guys, who could have been the shooter, started telling them there was a shooting in the park. When we stopped running I was covered in sweat and two blocks away, so we must have been moving pretty fast. OJ didn’t say anything for about two minutes after. Once he knew we were okay, we both started laughing and thinking about how amazing it was. I thought it was great at the time, but as the night went on, the seriousness of the situation began to sink in. We then went to High Voltage so I could try to take some pictures. I couldn’t really see what was going on. I couldn’t possibly explain what was going on in my head. This cute girl kept talking to me, but I just couldn’t deal with her. If I told someone about the shooting they just kept asking me questions that I couldn’t explain. If I told someone about the drugs they just made fun of me and tried to rub my back. I did not want to be touched. I was very embarrassed to be so fucked up, as that is not how I am, so we left. OJ wanted to tell everyone in town about what happened, even to strangers on the street. He got countless people to buy him drinks because of it. We went to Lit, Beauty Bar, Fat Baby, Motor City and Max Fish before we called it a night. I went over to my girlfriends house and talked to her until seven in the AM. My whole body hurt and I felt miserable. At that point I started getting visuals and I just watched the ceiling for a while. I tried to be sexy with her, but I couldn’t take my pants off or get hard. It was awful. I then turned my phone of and slept until 8pm. (although I was up for a few hours at some point) What a fucking weird night. I found out today that those pills had mescaline in them, so who knows what could have happened. It was certainly an experience I will never forget, and I feel like OJ and I bonded forever. That being said, I will never do that shit again. Jesus. Don’t do drugs kids.

PS. I am staying at my girlfriends house again tonight, so I can’t post the few High Voltage pics because I don’t have my computer with me. They should be up tomorrow between 4 and 10. With pictures from tonight if I can manage to go out.