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It's like a good Indie movie.
Of course there was a reason behind this... I just won't tell you what it is!
November : Arizona for Thanksgiving
January : Peru
| My LiveJournal Trick-or-Treat Haul |
|---|
| willisbigred goes trick-or-treating, dressed up as A Fairy. |
| amphetamineamy gives you 14 milky white root beer-flavoured gummy worms. |
| cadizchica gives you 4 mottled green spearmint-flavoured gumdrops. |
| catherinegq gives you 1 yellow cinnamon-flavoured jawbreakers. |
| flutechica04 gives you 11 teal evil-flavoured jawbreakers. |
| geminibell gives you 2 milky white strawberry-flavoured pieces of taffy. |
| iloveyouforfree gives you 5 light yellow banana-flavoured nuggets. |
| labonnefille tricks you! You get a dead frog. |
| laurasubby gives you 3 teal cinnamon-flavoured nuggets. |
| lilrocker227 gives you 1 purple apple-flavoured pieces of chewing gum. |
| schnazzlepops13 gives you 16 light orange raspberry-flavoured pieces of taffy. |
| willisbigred ends up with 57 pieces of candy, and a dead frog. |
| Another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern. |
The most important thing happening right now is my job search to fulfill my requirement for my graduate degree: I have to find a job that I can write my thesis about. I have been offered a position in Peru working with MMI (mmint.org) as a director's assistant/translator during which I would spend hopefully a large portion of my time planning missions and other events. Perhaps even designing whole programs. This would probably be a full year-long position, unpaid, but as far as I can tell, food and housing are paid for. That leaves the unsightly large plane ticket bill as well as any other spending money I would want while down there. It's actually quite stressful since correspondence is slow and I have no real way to judge how my supervisor in Peru feels about the situation. I'm sure it will work out in the end, things always do for me.
Besides that, I've been working part time to stay ahead of my expenses, which is mostly working. Doing a lot of hanging out. I have no real "home" at this point, I'm sleeping in 3 different places, so basically I'm permanently living out of a backpack. Changing beds a few times a week is hell on my sleeping schedule, as well as stressful trying to get where I need to be when I need to be there. And of course I sleep better some places than others.
But hey, I'm still alive, basically living for only the price of gas and food, I can't complain too much. I'm just waiting it out until January, which is when (I hope) we're going to Peru--pending approval from my supervisor of course.
I haven't been taking a whole lot of pictures lately, haven't been places where it seemed appropriate/where I had my camera with me. I need to start going out of my way a little bit to do that. I have so much equipment sitting around, and not using it seems a waste. And of course, given my current financial situation, and the fact that I don't use my current camera, I can't justify upgrading. And I have to save my money anyway, since my laptop is about to need to be replaced. My only question is: which part of the electrical system is going to die first. The power cord is down to nearly bare wires, and the battery only holds a 3% charge--lasting 3 minutes unplugged. For the price of replacing both, I can get a brand new, better computer. Dell can go to hell with their ungodly prices.
Anyway, that's about it. I'll throw in a picture just to annoy you all :)
- Final assignments are assigned, as are the dates they are due on.
- I've changed the layout of my LJ (it was about time)
- http://willblaschko.com/albumdemo/ has become a portfolio website, not just a demo
- My dad is coming later this week
- Peace Corps are still being obstinate about my application
- It's 80 degrees outside and sunny--it seems that Spring was skipped this year
p.s. yes it's a real person too, not some fake person.
I convinced Catherine to let me try out my new lens (Nikkor 50mm 1.8 f) and flash (Nikon SB600) today during a photo shoot--we went up to the local park, her in her new skirt, and myself in my new gear, and did a little hour and a half-long photo shoot. I'm convinced that I may be able to photograph a whole wedding without dying. That's the goal at least. I was being over-exuberant and took close to 300 pictures in that time. I'm going to need to tone it down for the wedding. Anyway, this is one of my twenty favorites. We have to go up there again, this time with her other new clothes, so I can get used to the flash outdoors. A decent portion of my pictures were too burned-out to use, which wouldn't be good. Oh well, at least I have a willing model!
Catherine the Model
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This past Saturday I went to the Volume of our Voices presentation at my grad school: SIT Graduate Institute. The Rutland Herald actually did an article about it that is a very good summary and insight into the actual presentation. I was "photographer" as always, not official, but there. I didn't get to try out my new 50mm Nikkor 1.8/f lens as I had hoped, since there was no good angle for such a short lens, but I did use my 90mm 2.8/f Tamron instead, and got a very good angle from the balcony. This was the first time I shot only in RAW, which was a completely new experience--especially the processing of the images. I bought the new Sandisk SD card for my camera, and IT IS FAST! It has no problem clearing the buffer, even when shooting RAW. Anyway, I have 60 pictures (200 make the cut, 60 of the best are in the album) in Volume of our Voices Highlights. They're worth checking out, as is the article in the Rutland Herald.
As I said in my last post, I updated the whole web album system, while the old address still work, I've made it much faster to load, and so it takes less resources both on my server and the local computer.
I loved the show, it was very touching and powerful. The photos I took are a very good representation of the actual show, but perhaps fail to convey the power of the presentations. This one in particular only hints at the strength and passion of the two performers who put on an excellent production. It was a great show. Like I said, shot with my Tamron 90mm on my Nikon D50. Capture One 4 is a great program for processing RAW by the by--it deals with noise well, and is pretty intuitive.
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I finally cashed in on my graduation present from my dad for graduating from UW with honors. He offered me a sizable chunk of money, more than I've ever received for my birthdays or Christmas. And since I'm being the main photographer for Laura's wedding (which I'm very, very nervous about) I bought myself a nice bounce-flash (the SB-600 pictured above) and a 50mm 1.8/f Nikkor lens (also pictured above).
It's amazing to be able to shoot in available light at dusk in my apartment! No flash, a fast lens, and the picture still turn out tack sharp. I love this new lens, it's amazing! The flash is also wonderful, although I haven't had a whole lot of time to play with it. Spring break is next week, so hopefully I'll get a chance to get back in shape with taking pictures and practice composing photographs. I am looking for models to practice with, I have one or two, but an assortment to practice group shots would be great. Anyway, this is a picture of me, taken in the mirror, using the bounced flash+available light. This is my new lens too!
I also completely changed my photo albums website found at http://www.willblaschko.com/albums. That's what I do during class :-D.
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500+ pages of theories and case studies, with full comprehension expected per week
12+ hours of group meetings to discuss classwork and readings per week
3-4+ written/oral assignments about readings, classwork, and group work per week
24+ hours of in-class time per week
1+ times eating out because you're too tired to cook per week
2+ times ordering out because you're to tired to eat out per month
8-9 hours of sleep on a good night
4-7 hours of sleep on an average night
0-3 hours of sleep during midterms and finals
My SD teacher, Professor Nikoi told us, "Grad school is one long, endless night." Unfortunately he was right. But it's a fun experience none-the-less.
It has snowed so much recently, on Tuesday it snowed so much that I almost got stranded at school. Thank goodness Steve was willing to brave the elements to come rescue me from my fate. Classes have started again and the warmth and sun of Seattle that I enjoyed during Reading Week have ended, and I have returned to the white bleakness of snow and ice. That's alright, it's a decent life despite the hardships.
This was a picture taken on Tuesday. I also went on a trek down the hill to the soccer fields, garden, and streams to take some more pictures with my new friend Anne. Unfortunately, when fording the stream, I managed to fall in, both legs almost up to my knees were covered by freezing-cold water. I still have all my toes, fortunately, and it wasn't even that bad as long as I kept moving. Anyway, Some of the pictures I find very beautiful, here are the rest: Midwinter Adventure
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I, in my insanity, am inclined to test this theory for a month. Granted, food prices here in the US are much higher than they are in other countries, but since I am not going to include electricity (cooking), heat, etc, I think it would be possible. So, at some point in the near future I'm going to attempt to go a month living on just two US$ per day. This means a lot of rice, beans, cheap fruits. I will not have much (or perhaps any) meat, and probably will end up malnourished, and missing essential vitamins. This is all part of the exercise. I will journal--hopefully daily--when I do this, so that people can follow my progress and hear my thoughts on the matter. Right now I'm living on a budget of about $10/day for food, which gives me more than enough to eat--including many expensive dishes that include meats and cheeses. I believe cutting that down will not be as big an issue as it seems. I may get bored of my food, but at least I will have it.
Anyway, more to come when I start this journey towards insanity. I will warn you all when it starts, as I will probably be moody and underfed.
- Marilyn Monroe
