素晴しい水曜日(Wonderful Wednesday) #3

So I'm working on a new way of compiling a list so I'll actually post this every week, lol.  Wish me luck. XD

1.  For those that don't know I collect cameras.  Mostly vintage ones but I was intrigued when I saw a post on FStoppers about this artist's cameras.  They are crazy.  Seriously, this one utilizes a skull:

Why did he use a skull?  It related to the subject he intended to photograph: "the beauty of decay".

Another? Has an infant heart in it which he used to take maternity photos.  He also has one that has blood from someone who has HIV in it which he "Designed to study and photograph a geographic comparison of people suffering from HIV."  Each camera has specific reasons for why he used what he did so I definitely suggest checking out the rest of the cameras from Boy of Blue Industries Cameras.

2.  Settlers of Catan Online.  For those who still don't watch TableTop on Geek & Sundry, this is one of the games they featured/played and in searching for it to add to my wishlist I discovered there is an online version for free.  Now I honestly haven't played more than the intro version because it's only free if you play with real people and I'm too afraid to.  Sad, but true.  I wanted to play a few computer rounds and get used to it but that didn't happen.  But it's there and I was super excited and hopefully I'll grow a set in the next few days and play a legit game, lol.

3.  Pintershit is back!  For a bit I was a  bit of a Pinterest addict and then I forgot to log in for a few weeks and I'm just now starting to check it again but this site takes ideas from Pinterest and tries them to see if they work and posts about them.  Yeah that button bowl?  Full (as full as a broken, holey bowl can be) of failyos.

4. Test Your Vocab is a fun little short test to gauge how large your vocabulary is.

5.  This Stargate T-shirt from PaganChick on etsy

Sorry this week isn't all that exciting.  Nasty headaches kill my creativity...

Finding My Path

Well I got one post out this week...

*shifty eyes*

So the last week or so has been me examining photography and what I like about it and don't like about it and if you follow me on Twitter you also know I had to write down some strengths and weaknesses and was having a terrible time of it and got super down on myself as a result.  Part of me is ready to graduate and another part of me is like "whoa, no... so not ready for this" and completely terrified that I've wasted the last few years and oh so many thousands of dollars on an education for something I'm not good enough at.

See that?  That's me spilling my guts out.  Be gentle.

So after examining what I like and don't like (and not even going over the strengths & weaknesses bit that I spent oh so much time stressing over) I've pinned down what I want out of my photography and wondered why the hell I've been sticking with such safe photography.  

When the HELL did I get so damn timid???

In High School my favorite activity was drama.  I lived for drama and it was really the only thing that kept me going.  I took chances with my art and I wasn't afraid to talk to anyone, what the hell happened to me???  Now I can't even approach anyone.  Umm hello I've sold sex toys as a job!  This should be easy peasy.

 

So now it's shoot, shoot, shoot.  In fact a large part of today's to-do list is finishing up some photos for a friend to then see if she'll model again.  I'm so slow at editing, but getting faster as I work at it, damn perfectionist side.

Another "funny" thing- in my research the number of photographers I feel my model should get for her time is a hell of a lot more than many give their models for several hundred dollars. O.o So that's how so many photographers make a killing.

So yeah.  That's what's up and why I've been neglecting my blog.  Was told I needed to do some serious research into the area I want to go into and I have been.  Funny though, doesn't seem like research should be this awesome.  I'm thinking I'll do some artist spotlights with the artists I've found here in the near future, so have no fear, I will share you you my findings of awesome.

Oh Fridays, How I Love You

Fridays have come to be a beautiful thing.  Semesters past I was always one of those poor saps that Fridays meant absolutely nothing other that more work because it and the occasional evening were the only times I had that I was able to work.  It sucked and I don't miss it at all.  I still have a small shift on the weekend but it's nothing like it used to be.  It feels good to finally be one of those people that can scream TGIF at the end of the weekdays.

So I'm slowly finishing up some editing from past shoots.  Damn photo manipulations class made me such a perfectionist, haha.  That's good until you're trying to get stuff done so you can move on and I feel like I can't move on until I'm done with these photos.  I feel like I gotta get these done so I can left them behind and get to work on what I'm excited to work on, which is putting more me into my photography.  I have an attitude and I need to portray that in my photography.  I get called a bitch a lot but since high school I've been like "you say that like it's a bad thing" and yeah a lot of the time I'm a bitch in the bad sense but I'm working on that.

[Though days when I lose my seat in class and end up having to sit up front, directly in front of some jerk who thinks my chair is theirs to tap on or someone who sits right next to me in a totally open lab, and then precedes to make disgusting noises as they blow their nose and hack all over the place or that guy that has to go HA! every time the professor says something even REMOTELY funny and then HAHAHAHA! when she says something chuckle worthy... (oh & did I mention he's had a cold for a week so I get to hear *cough*HA!*sniff, sniff sniff sniff sniff*HA*coughcough**sniffle*HAHAHAHA!) make it really hard]

Sorry went on a bit of a rant there for a second.  I just don't understand people, I guess.  Or at least the ones who insist on walking next to their friend down a narrow staircase so you have to hugs the railing in order not to be taken out but I digress.  I'm really excited to burst into this new direction.  What my advisor said really hit me and I'm excited to get people together.  Now it's just getting models.  Yeah, yeah, I know try places like Model Mayhem, well the problem with that is that all my photos are my old style (or rather lack of a style altogether) and so there's that problem but yes I will go there and put in my bio what I'm working on, so hush.

(Sorry people keep reminding me of things I need to or should do too and it's starting to wear on me a bit)

I do have a couple friends around here I can start with though, it's just that I'd like to do what even in my head sounds like a ridiculous amount of shooting, but then that's what I need to do as I need to get an entire portfolio of my photography together by like mid-April or so.

*hyperventilates*

Okay, on to other things.  I've decided that I'm going to start doing my manga reviews in blog form only because people on YouTube are dicks and I'm not in the mood for their bs.  Cause you know, no one else has ever made a pronunciation mistake in their freaking lives.  *rolls eyes*  plus I get more done and it gets done and actually posted.  I hate editing video of myself.  My voice on tape or video drives me insane so it takes me forever to edit, if I don't just scrap the whole dang thing.  So Mondays will be my review days as I've promised myself to read more manga this year, but we'll see how long after May that lasts, hahaha!

Speaking of babeh... I could sit and watch my stomach move from D's movements for hours.  It still makes me giggle and yesterday he was going half crazy and I discovered that if I yell, which I tend to do a lot of when driving in this shithole of a city, he gets all sorts of upset or something and tumbles around and punches and kicks.  So there's that.  Now he's not only determined to make me eat healthier but also determined to make me calm down.  He's gonna be just like his father...

Anyway, I really didn't have much to say today, sorry, but the pictures I have that I would post aren't here with me so that post will have to wait until next week or something.  Hope everyone has a glorious weekend and I hope at least one of you is looking forward to manga reviews, though I'm probably kidding myself.  And ya know if all you wanna hear about is the family stuff and you don't want to read posts where I cuss all the time and stuff you can always hop on over to the Family Blog and follow me there.  I wouldn't blame you one bit as I'm as foul-mouthed as a sailor and am well aware that I offend people on a daily basis.  It's kinda my thing.  ^w~

^w^

I Should Be Reading

But I'm not.  Obviously.  I can only read so much about Asian Politics until I want to *headdesk* until I can no longer feel, haha!  I have been doing more unassigned reading than anything, really.  I got a book with tips and info for portrait photography that I've been reading a lot of.  Most is review but a some of it has been extremely helpful since most of my lighting experience is in lighting products and not people, though there are some similarities between the two.  I did assist a photographer the semester before last and that helped me a TON but it was also with studio lights.

My new camera came today.  I was super excited.  It definitely made my Monday suck less.

Though really it's my Tuesdays that are my hell.

Meet TIM 

(TIM stands for Twin Image Maker)

Also meet and love Archimedes who accompanied dear Timmy on his journey from Photojojo to his home with me.  ^w^  He is also quite the star of my Timmy photos.  :D

My other two should be here any day now as well.  I finally was able to get a Polaroid one-step (I've been wanting one for years) and the one I ordered happen to come with a Polaroid Square Shooter 4 which may or may not work but considering I got them both for what most of the one-steps were going for individually I was pretty happy.  Film for the Square Shooter is pretty damn rare though so I don't see using it anyway but it's good for the collection, ne?

I also made me a cell phone charm.  I was super stoked that my new phone (Droid X) had a spot for a charm but didn't want to get something metal that would scratch the screen (or the screen protector- haven't made the jump to buy the $30 one that's supposedly scratch proof) so I decided I would get a plushie one and while I did find an uber cute Hello Kitty/Ichigo (strawberry) I found this little guy at Hellmart and in my head I was like "IT'S SO FLUFFY I'M GONNA DIE" *giggle*

 So I made my lil white & purple unicorn into a cell phone charm.  :D

Also, I have blogged over at the family blog again.

I really just need to make a button to put over here in the sidebar but yeah... maybe someday and maybe not, hahaha.  I'll prolly blog again around tomorrow or Wednesday too, since I sat and watched my stomach move for like 20 minutes last night and another 20 minutes tonight.  *giggle*  I just love it so much I can't get over it.  It's funny when people tell me "oh wait till he's big and doing this or that" like it was so annoying (someone on my fb).  I simply tell them that I am totally okay with that.  This way I know my lil man is okay.  Plus maybe it's that we've waited so long for this that I cherish every bit of it.  I love when I'm getting kicked like crazy from the inside.  It's so fun and so weird and I wouldn't trade it for anything.  

^w^

Carving Out My Path

So it's almost been a week since I blogged but it's pretty obvious that it doesn't matter to anyone other than me whether I'm blogging or not.

Had my meeting with my adviser about my portfolio and I'm still super nervous about it but I've got an idea though and I'm ready to run with it.  I wonder if he saw the specific moment the ah-ha moment hit me or not, but then some of it hit me after I left too.  I realized that I'm not putting my attitude into my photos so no wonder I'm having problems.  I've got a few more photos to edit and get to models but then I'm going to be working my ass off and hopefully getting about a shoot a week in or at least every two weeks so I can really hone putting myself into my photography.  My professor said a couple things in our meeting that really hit me, like the fact that looking at me it's pretty obvious I have a rebellious nature and I'm not portraying that and to get the clients I want I need to be doing that.  Also when he suggested some places I look to get some inspiration I realized a few of my own and I'm super excited to start drawing from these places as well, such as anime and manga.  Plus I've still got that photo from my ah-ha moment last year hanging in my office reminding me all the time that if I want to achieve greatness I gotta stop asking for permission.  ^w^

Other than that I've just been busy with lots of reading for classes (so much for getting any fun reading in this semester) so my "now reading" is all jacked up. I will damn well find a way to read Lover Unleashed when it comes out in March though.  Can't wait for more of my man Vishous.  YUM.

So that's it for this installment of the vampire bunny talks to herself so yeah...

^w^;;

PS:  How about them Packers? :D

Let's Do This

So much for staying on schedule during the semester.

>.<

Mostly my excuse yesterday was that we had another doctor's appointment which was down in Denver.  It amazes me how we're an hour away but going down there is a half day ordeal.  The appointment went well other than I really did not like the doctor who came in after the tech did my ultrasound.  Pretty sure D didn't like her either.  How could you like someone bouncing the ultrasound thing on your home to try and get you to move around.  

Truthfully, I was pissed.

So by the time I got home I was exhausted.  Then again by about 5 or 6 in the evening any day I'm wiped (stupid classes in the tops of buildings) and doing anything other than sitting on the couch takes entirely too much energy, haha!

Found out today that I will have to sit out on some activities in my photo class.  It's all about alternative ways to process photos so we're working with several chemicals and while most won't hurt me as long as I'm wearing gloves and not drinking the developer (doesn't print developer just sound scrumptious?) I'll be just fine.  I will, however have to miss out on some fairly noxious processes like Gum Bichromate, which is uber fascinating but I can always give it a go after the little one is born.  But there is lots I will be able to do and I can't wait to make pinhole cameras out of all sorts of ridiculous objects which will be one of our first projects.

My other classes seem like they'll be good, fairly easy.

*runs off to knock on wood and runs back*

Which I'm hoping will hold true as another one of my courses is me focusing solely on my portfolio.  My senior portfolio that needs to be spectacular enough that they'll be like yes we feel confident you can go off in the world and be a photographer.

*deep breaths*

This is what's scaring me most.  I gotta pick a direction for my art.  Up until now it's been try a little of this and a little of that and make discoveries and have fun.  Now it's figure out what I want my photography to say about me.  My art has to speak for me and what I'm about.  It needs to have a discernible style.  So John looked at me today and said he needed me to do some serious soul searching.

*gulp*

I know it's true but damn it scares me.  I also know I can always later change directions.  Artists change style all the time but I've been trying to choose a direction for a year and I'm still drawing a blank.  This is also why my photography site has sat for months without me adding anything.

Well that and I need to reinstall my tablet driver because suddenly my laptop hates my guts.

*headdesk*

Which is the goal for tomorrow afternoon/night and then this weekend is crazy photo editing time so I can get discs to two of my girls who were awesome models for me last semester as well as get some new material on my site and take something to John next week and say okay this is what I've been up to and now I need your professional opinion.  Which I would get whether I wanted it or not but it's crunch time and I need to lay it all out on the line.

*deep breath*

Alright last semester of my college career....

Let's do this.

Free At Last

So I didn't blog much this semester but a large part of that was how much it sucked and how much work I was doing all semester.  Plus I had big news that I couldn't start sharing until after November 8th, hence yesterday's post.  Which was really hard not to do because there were so many of you I wanted to tell but after telling EVERYONE last time and then having to relive the miscarriage over and over whenever I ran into someone else who hadn't heard yet I refused to go through that again.

Classes were horrific this semester.

I had two history classes which involved two papers and two really intensive exams for each, the one only being 5-7 page papers though but the other being 10-15 page papers.  >.<  And his exams are brutal.  But I think I survived.  You never know with two essays on the final... He has really high standards but you know what, it gives me a challenge, which apparently I needed my second to last semester of my entire college career, haha.

Oh yeah... I'm graduating in May.  I have one more semester left.

*Giant sigh of relief*

Now to tackle that photography portfolio. ^w^

I also had a terrible Women's Studies class that was at 8 am two day a weeks (I do NOT do mornings which you know if you follow me on Twitter, lol) and it had a crap load of reading.  Oh best part... it had a man hating professor.  That was awesome.  It was exactly as I dreaded it would be- nothing but man-hating crap.  Sorry but ladies if you want to change something in the world, whining about shit does NOTHING.  Js.

Then there was photography where I discovered that with our photo prof as you get into higher classes you have less strict guidance & deadlines.  He has everything due at the end which is bad news bears for me.  I totally ended up rushing things at the end and did not get done what I wanted and I'm horrified at what I turned in.  I will however be prepared for next semester though!!  ^w^  The less strict guidelines is good though, be an art and all, it's nice when your professors encourage developing your own style before you leave college.

As for photography, keep an eye on my photography website too, as I'll be posting up some new photos I've taken this semester.  Especially of two lovely ladies I heart bunches who were awesome enough to let me snap some photos of them near the stinkiest lake in Greeley, lol.  It's a wonder none of us lost our lunches.  *shudders*  Especially my pregnant and nauseous self, hahaha (especially with this superhuman smell I have now).  Gonna have to redo some posts though as I didn't realize blogger strips all your metadata from photos.  

Thank you blogger!!!  /sarcasm

So now I'm using flickr to put them up because they keep all your metadata (info about your photo like creator and how it was taken).  Granted people can still be nasty little thieves if they really want to be, but I guess it's kind of like locking your car door, it keeps the honest (or I guess somewhat honest people because what honest person would steal at all) from violating Wheaton's Law, because stealing makes you a dick and being a dick is BAD, Wil Wheaton says so.  :P

Oh!  I almost forgot what else I did!!  Did you see in my novel progress that there's been an addition of a word count AND a little button/ribbon??

I won NaNoWriMo for the first time!!!

Even through all that crap in school (5-7 page paper due the 8th & 10-15 page paper due on my birthday) and going home for Thanksgiving and such I finished a novel!  Well I got past 50k words.  I still need to go back and finish things up, but finals was this week (and for non art students stuff is always due the week BEFORE in art classes) so it needed to take a back seat for a couple weeks.

Then it's edit time!!

(Gomen, just a tad excited)

But also on the to-do list for Christmas break is organizing my ridiculous amount of photos.

Hold me... I'm scared.

I started out my first digital photography semester quite well but things went downhill quick and now it's ridiculous how much organizing I have to do. *sigh*  But it must be done so I can keep backups up to date.

Oh on that note... back up your shit lovelies... trust me.

Wasn't me, but a gal in my photography class lost EVERYTHING 2 weeks before finals and had to re-shoot and edit everything.  Scary stuff, kids.  Well scary stuff if you have a ridic amount of photos, documents and such, not so much if you're one of those weirdos who isn't constantly on their computer. :P

Well that's it for now!! ^w^

So I Lied Apparently

2 weeks after I said I would blog more I failed to do so... again.

*hangs head*

GOMEN!!

So here's what I've been up to. A.K.A. my excuses for being a lame blogger.

1-I've been working on my photography website.
Which is very slow going as I want to put up a bunch of edited photos. Which means a lot of editing. The good news is I have my office put together now so I do have a spot to run away to and edit and I've even found some cool effects and things to do with my photos. Sadly there's only so much editing before one is driven bat shit crazy. And let's just say I didn't have that far to go in the first place.

2-I finally said to hell with the Night Lace podcast and changed it to an all vampire blog and added a forum. Please if you like any vampires at all, come check out and follow our blog, Vampaholics Anon(ymous), and join our forum. The forum is a work in progress though so please be patient with me!! Plus the first 25 members will be considered "founding members". Yeah it's prolly not that enticing, lmao.

3-Work... you know the thing I whined about in my last post.

4-RPing... as usual. I run a Twilight RPG called Deja Vu in Forks which is awesome and if you love the series Twilight Series you should check into it. Especially if you have RP experience. And if you don't? We can totally teach you. It's WAY easy. Simply put: you post on the forum as if you were the character in the situation. I am also part of several others RPs- 2 for Black Dagger Brotherhood and another for Twilight. Oh & I've been working on setting up an HON one for a while now. What can I say? I reject reality.

5-Reading. Those that follow my Twitter know that I effed up big time this last Saturday and spent money at Barnes & Noble. The fact that I spent any was bad enough... the total amount? Yeah I'm grounded from B&N for at least 2 weeks. Then the next week I won't get a paycheck anyway... so yeah. T^T

6-Gaming. I spent 6 hours playing Sacred 2 last Friday. I started over with a new character. So I was running my tree-hugging dryad that uses her halberd for a strippers pole all over Ancaria helping the townsfolk right all that is wrong with their worlds and getting self-righteous to hunters when I'm slaying other living things left and right. She's such a hypocrite. *rolls eyes* I should have known to stick with my elves. Always. Choose. The. Elves...

7-Finishing decorating the house.
This is not not even close to being done. Where the hell did we get all this shit lovely stuff from? *shaking my head* Putting all this stuff up is pretty much a full time job. But without the pay.

So yeah that's pretty much what I've been up to the last two weeks. Please, please, PLEASE check out the new blog and stay tuned to see my photo website. I mean you could go to it now... but yeah all it is right now is some buttons that link to things and me talking about why I chose photography... boooooring. Lol.

Questions? Comments? Concerns??

I kid, I kid.

^w^

This Vamp Bunny Queen Fails at Blogging

Good grief... you'd think I'd be blogging daily now that school is out but no. Mostly I haven't felt like blogging because I'm in a terrible mood (which is happening a lot now that I'm working almost full time) or I'm too busy when I'm in a good mood... and I've uh...

been RPing... a lot.

Because reality sucks and I prefer to get lost with beloved fictional characters. Sad but true.

Anyway... So here's a question...

Did you know I originally started this blog as somewhere to post my manga reviews from YouTube?

'Tis true!

And guess what I've NEVER done... Oops.

But the plan is to start up again. But don't worry I will keep blogging too. Now you'll just get to laugh at me in videos as well as reading crap I write, lol. Oh & I'm going to try to blog more often... I swear! *hangs head* If nothing else if I'm in a terrible mood I'll search for something hilarious to share or something random from Stumble! which is my new fav anti-work. Lol.

So yeah... how ya guys been? Have a missed me? Lol. Oh & does anyone on here happen to know how to get it so you can type in a domain name I own and get a blog to show up? Like it will show the blog but the address will show be my domain name? If not that's cool, I'm sure I'll figure it out but I bought bittenphotography.com and I started a blog for my photography but I'm having issues getting it set up. #FAIL

Anyway... I'm off to go unpack some more stuff and look for my eyeshadow palette which I miss terribly and haven't seen since we moved. Which means I'm FREAKING OUT!

Later everyone! ^w^

Begone Sad Post!

New post to get rid of my last emo post. I hate emo posts and I rarely do them so now I will write something worth reading.

So I've been working with an awesome photographer here at the Univ who is doing head shots for the theater dept. I've only assisted him one day (was supposed to today but the shoot was canceled) and I will be helping tomorrow. It's Peter Konerko who does head shots for actors and actresses as well as his own work, all of which can be checked out at his website. He's pretty much amazing and I feel so blessed to have this opportunity. I've already learned so much from him after just one shoot. I'm going to be way bummed when this is over.

As you can see in my sidebar--->
I finished Lover Awakened of the Black Dagger Brotherhood and it was AH-MAZING. Started Lover Revealed and just a couple chapters in was already struggling to not cry. Damnit. Lol. I still love it though. ^w^ I should be reading Matsui's Story and I will but damn it's hard to put these books down. Like tortuous to be away from them. #truth

Plus they have very well written sexy time. Yay for sexy time. ^w~

I am having a terrible time concentrating on homework. Srsly. It's ridiculous. I would rather read anything but a text book. Especially if it's my Asian Civ text. BO-RING!! I like history... just not reading about it via textbook. I did however do the reading and do my workbook for Nihongo (Japanese) though. I'd have what she assigned today done... if I didn't suck at kanji. Seriously I am TERRIBLE at remembering kanji, it's ridic. I know less than a 5 year old I swear, lol.

I got an order from Sephora today. I've been a member of their points thingie for like a year or so and just finally ordered. I got the Urban Decay Complexion Primer Potion and the Eyeshadow Primer Potion. The Eyeshadow UDPP was the XL and came with a UD lipstick, lip gloss, mascara and eyeliner...

The verdict?

I'm in LOVE!

Urban Decay is my new favorite makeup and I'm thinking there are going to be a lot more UD purchases in my future. Srsly. My eyeshadow is just as perfect as when I put it on at around 1pm. Oh and the color is so much more brighter and what it should be.

Okay... I'll shut up about it now... I'm just so damned excited about it hahaha.

Oh and Lady A's new album comes out Tuesday... I'm DYING. I can't wait for more songs sung by the ever so sexy Charles Kelley. Srsly anything he sings is a #pantydroppin'song. #truth

Warning: I am about to get on my soapbox and rant about politics.

I'm thinking about getting more involved in elections, more than just my usual voting. Those who know me know that I am neither Republican or Democrat and I pretty well hate those parties because I feel like they have too much power. Most voters see their ballot and only pay attention to the candidates everyone hears about and ignores the fact that there are plenty of other candidates from other parties. I'm not saying I'm gung ho for the communists but everyone goes for the "lesser of two evils". Ummm no. Vote for who you truly support, not who you think is the least amount of trouble.

I voted from who I really supported. Later my G-parents (who I love dearly but we have WAY different political opinions) and I were having a convo about voting and I said that people need to realize it doesn't have to be the lesser of two evils and my Gramps said that if you don't vote for one of the two "main" candidates your vote was wasted. I replied with "Well I'd rather my vote be wasted than to vote for someone I don't fully support." He kinda caved a little with that. Which was awesome because he is stubborn (as am I) so to get him to even lean a little is something, lol.

So yeah that turned into a bit of a novel but what I'm saying is that I want to get more involved. Mostly in getting people to realize that in order to get away from this bs we gotta start paying more attention to ALL candidates and what they stand for and voting for who we truly support.

George Washington warned the country over 200 years ago about the negative effects of political parties in a letter he wrote to the nation just before leaving office.

“The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the public counsels and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasional riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions.”

Our main political parties no longer care about what is best for the people and the parties are too busy slinging mud to focus on the real issues at hand. I think it's time we do something about it and make a movement for a REAL change.

*steps off soapbox*

*groan*

Srsly?

Srsly.

Well school has started again and I have mixed feelings. Mostly I've grown used to having spare time and I don't want that to go away. Not that I really did anything of value with my spare time but that is besides the point.

Anyway... already this semester I know I will have multiple papers. Two of which are 5-7 pages. Balls.

I also remember now that I really should have worked on my Japanese over break too. >.< Oops.

Oh and yesterday some asshole backed into Ichigo. No damage but I was leaning against her (the road is way narrow and she's a two door so I was waiting for passing traffic) and she lurched. So I'm kinda waiting for said moron to finish parking and get out so I could tell him there was no damage. Well he was moving very slow at getting out of his POS van. So I get my stuff into my car. Then the dick head grabs his stuff and walks across the street!! No check to see about damage, no asking if my car is ok... NOTHING!

I was like are you effing kidding me. I have two theories about why, both of which are scary/maddening.

1. The old man didn't even notice.
Which makes me feel oh so safe and makes me think old people should have more in depth license renewal so old people who can't even tell when they've hit a car are no longer on the road or

2. He is, as said before, an a-hole.
Which makes me want to punch things. Mostly him though.

So yeah I was livid. For those who don't know I love my car. She's a '98 but gets 32 miles to the gallon (so car companies are full of it when they say they can't make new cars that get that without them being hybrid) and she just rocks in general, so I'm very protective of her. She may not look brand new anymore but she's a good car. (& if you want to know where her name came from watch Kamikaze Girls with Anna Tsuchiya. She would be Anna's character in it- acts tougher than she is, lol.)

However, I will end this post with news of awesomeness. I am for the next two weeks, a total of like 3 days, assisting Peter Konerko (an amazing photographer) while he does head shots for the theater dept. I was way nervous, cause he's amazing so I was intimidated, but he's awesome. So knowledgeable and I've already learned some stuff from him (and last night was just the informational meeting!) and I'm excited to work with him and pick his brain. I was in awe as he talked with the theater students about what they needed to wear, do, etc. Srsly.

You can check out his photography here: http://www.peterkonerko.com/

So yeah, I'm stoked.

Oh and I finally posted an intro to me on Ponies Don't Equal Orgasms which is a blog that will someday be known as (but not until we're all dead and gone) The Blog of Awesome. If you haven't checked it out and voted in our poll about what you want to hear us posting about then do it NOW! (Well after catering to me and leaving loving comments). ;)

Goals for 2010

So here it is folks, whether we want it or not it's 2010 and it's resolution making time. Well that means it's goal setting time for me. :D So I figured I'd share them with all of you, whether you care what they are or not. ;)

Number One: Finances
I vow to keep better track of my finances!
I also vow to make a plan to pay a ton of this shit off while actually saving some money away for both rainy days and emergencies and only buying what I have the means to.
Srsly. My finances are ridic & cause me oodles of stress.

which leads me to...

Number Two: Let it Be!
Quit being such a frikkin worry wart.
It never helps the situation and just gives me a tummy ache, tears and wasted time.

Number Three: Finish Novels
I have two novels I'm writing.
One I started summer of '09 and one that I started for NaNoWriMo '09. I ran out of ideas for the first (until recently) and then ran out of time and energy (One I started summer of '09 and one that I started for NaNoWriMo '09. I ran out of ideas for the first (until recently) and then ran out of time and energy ($&^@ing school) for the second so...
amp;^@ing school) for the second so...
I vow to finish them both this year!
As in "ready to send around and get lots of rejection letters" finished! :D

Number Four: Lose it!
Lose the weight that is!
I vow to lose 40 to 50 lbs (haven't weighed myself so it may be 50 now. >.< ).
AND keep it off.
I want to feel comfortable again, and wear all those cute clothes I refuse to donate/throw away so I have an excuse to not donate/throw away.
My plan: Exercise, eat smaller portions, less candy and pop (little to no pop, it tastes like syrup anymore anyway), and watch calories when possible.
Also with the exercising it's not only to lose the weight but to build me some muscles again, lol.

Number Five: Rock the home biz
I'm going to rock it this year. Hopefully enough that my puny two days at my job won't depress me so much. This means revamping hostess specials and everything.
I will succeed at this and it will help me greatly with resolution #1 when I succeed.

Number Six: Be a good student!
I have a happy bunny cell phone charm that says "I want to be a good student, unless that means coming to class." and that's kind of how I was this last semester and it screwed me out of a B+ so no more screwing around.
I vow to miss as little class as possible (2 days at most for art classes and 3 days at most for others).
I vow to stay on top of my homework this year and if possible stay ahead.
&
I will graduate this year! Even if it scares the shit out of me to do so.

Number Seven: Become a better photographer
This pretty much goes along with #6 since I'm a photography major but also involves some work outside of classes. Meaning grabbing some books and stuff that aren't required and asking my adviser questions to the point of being utterly aggravating. Be prepared John.


So that's what I've got so far everyone. I think it's important to always be working on goals for yourself so this may change (as in get bigger) throughout the year. I am determined to be the procrastination queen inside of me down and show her who is boss around here.

So what are your goals/resolutions for 2010?
Have a same goal and wanna be resolution buddies? :D

The Lens Fiasco of '09

So I should most definitely be studying for my Nihongo final but I'm not. Haven't been all night. You'll know why I failed. So here is a tale, that I wish were just a tale and not being told from first hand experience. However, highsight is 20/20 and there are no time machines (Though Sheldon would argue that going back in time to fix something like this would merely eliminate the need to do and... oh dear... off track... um in any event the past is the past.

So I have a Pentax SLR (Two in fact, 1 is a model Sears put out years ago that my Daddy got my Mommy) and after hearing that you can use Pentax SLR lenses on a Pentax DSLR I was like hell yeah, well that and my Pentax (though most pro photogs hate them with a passion but can never really say way) has served me quite well. So after I, a beginner in DSLRs, read an amazing review from Pop Photo saying it was perfect for beginners and found out that there was an amazing deal on B&H Photo and Video on the set (with the kit lens was cheaper than without kind of deal) all with how good Pentax has been to me thus far in my photo career had me sold.

I want to start off by saying I love my Pentax K2000. It is not just a piece of equipment, it is a friend. To most that may sound weird as hell but as you work with a camera like this and you enjoy photography and constantly learning (are we ever really done learning?) you become very attached to your camera and even some lenses, yes, lenses. This is why tonight I was absolutely heartbroken at one point.

My Mom had also gotten quite a few lenses over the years (maybe Dad got 'em for her at the same time as the camera... not sure) A few smaller lenses and then my favorite, the zoom lens. So tonight I get the balls (or lose my mind, who knows) and try some of the lenses on my DSLR. Now all of these have been used with ease on both of my SLRs so I wasn't worried. It's all Pentax or made for Pentax. DUMBEST ASSUMPTION EVER! So I get to my dear old zoom lens put him on and go to click it into place and he clicked in an odd spot. So I'm like WTF? Then I try to take him back off to examine the issue and THE DAMN THING WON'T COME OFF!! So I'm freaking, wriggling it a bit, but also scared to break either of my lil buddies. So I search the interwebz and find nothing. I am pretty well dying at this point. Tears are streaming down my face and I'm wondering later how I even have the tears anymore as hard as I was crying. Also surprised I didn't wake up Cody with my sobbing.

So I search for a while, then fiddle with the camera, then set it down and search some more, fiddle, search. Then finally I really get to looking at one of the initial sites I found (hey I was not in the state of mind to be thinking rationally, I had just fucked over two of my friends- my DSLR and one of my fav lenses) and then I really start freaking when I see this guy's solution:

http://erdener.org/pentaxlensremoval/

I was horrified. NO I CAN'T DO THAT TO MY BABY! I kept screaming in my head while bawling some more, mumbling incoherently. Then I realize the site I gotten this site from had a better solution, though it was still very scary and I wasn't sure I could accomplish it before I had to shoot my next hockey game.

http://moyworld.com/StuckLens/Stuck_Pentax_Lens.html

So I'm still crying, telling myself how horrible of a photographer I am and how I don't even deserve to own my camera or any of my equipment when I finally calm down enough (or rather I think my tear ducts finally went on strike and said "screw you drama queen, we're outta here") to read thoroughly and still think it's a lot of work. But wait. He got the first idea with the little feeder gauges from a different site.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1036&message=19214685

Honestly, I could kiss this man. I want his address in order to send a thank you card, maybe with some cookies. Hell, maybe I'll send a hot stripper to his door with cookies and thank you card in hand! So then my next mission was finding something small enough to get between the AF and pesky pin on the lens when it hits me. The cheap-ass palette knifes I got with my paintbrush holder. So I figure out where the AF pin is (like the second guy, I marked it with a silver sharpie and that mark will stay there, a kind of badge of honor for my little camera buddy for having survived my stupidity) and work to get it in between the two and about 5 minutes later I think I have it. I carefully reach around (Heh, reach-around) and turn the lens and....
.
.
.
.

OFF HE COMES!!! I literally danced around the room with lens in hand. No really, I kid you not. The furkids were scared to death at my sudden change in mood. So the moral of the story kids? Only Pentax brand lenses should be trusted and while those made for Pentax will likely work, research to make sure. Oh and the funny part? The last site where I found the solution? That is EXACT SAME ZOOM LENS!! O.O Which makes me feel better to know that I am not the first to have this problem and that luckily, enough people have screwed up that by the time I came along there were several solutions to try and even more luckily, the least destructive worked.

So that my dear friends, is the story of The Lens Fiasco of '09. Please take care of your little camera friends and face-snuggle them extra close tonight. Also, with that I am off to remove the pesky little pin from my lens so we don't have another Lens Fiasco of '09 or of '10 as well as come up with a name for my camera. I think I owe her that much after all that we've been through. Enjoy your night and I hope you got a laugh or two at my expense, I know I did.

Quickie Post #01

I say quickie... but we'll see how quickie it really ends up as I have a tendency to babble like a brook.

So first...
I got by best grade of the entire semester on my most recent assignment and get this... it was the only one I totally hated and it was a last minute decision (rather forced decision) to hand in. Here's what happened. I shoot hockey games and when I do so I change my camera format to jpeg. There's no reason to shoot in raw when all I'd have to do is convert it to send them in. In class we have to turn in originals in raw (or dng rather but my camera takes the photos in dng to start with which saves me a good 20 minutes- I love Pentax). Well I went out, took some photos and edited one in class no big deal. Well I was working on it again early Friday morning when it was due and I realized I had forgotten to change that setting. FUCK. The one good photo I had was now shit and I could never turn it in, so after bawling and screaming into a pillow and making my headache even worse, I went with a photo that was in raw that was one of many I took for my painting and then took a pic of flower, that was now dead, and boom. My two best grades of the entire semester, which are STILL only B's. Don't get my wrong I'm happy I finally made a B+ but son of a biznatch this entire sitch was well beyond frustrating.