The New Year Upon Me

I finally have my car back! Now the thing is, I'm not happy with the job they did. They missed a small spot on the lower back of the quarter panel. It's only about a half inch wide, but they didn't do the job right. I'm taking it back in on Monday to make them redo it. I don't know what will happen, but I'm not happy about it at all. I have waited nearly a month and a half to get my car back and now it's not even right. The place has consistently lied to me. It's absolutely ridiculous.

Enough complaining though, I'm at Steph's now. Her and I will be going to her friend Laura's for New Year's. Just a quaint gathering. Fine by me. I'm not the kind for huge crowds really. I'm sure I will have plenty pictures from the evening to post. I'll possibly make a holiday gallery on Cropreality.

I was going to pick up my iTrip for the iPod Nano at Best Buy, but the whole U.S. is sold out of them. You can't even order them from BestBuy.com right now. I find that to be incredibly wierd. Hopefully there will be some later this week. I will have a New Year's resolution list up tomorrow as well. I've also decided to start writing a a personal Constitution. I'm going to take a long time writing this. After reading Jimmy Carter's new book I've decided it's very important to understand what I stand for and what my own values are. This is something that should be evaluated each year. I should have my first draft ready somewhere around my birthday. (February 26).

Since this will be the first time I'm going to be taking resolutions seriously, I'm going to start with only 3 resolutions this year. I'll take the time today to really think of what they should be and to be careful not to make unreasonable ones. If it's one thing I've learned it's to never set my goals too high because I become demoralized when I don't attain them.

"Dangerously Pleasurable"

So I'm an idiot. Found my cd case with Photoshop today. Likely to say I can add photos once again. Here's a Christmas photo. This was one of my man Christmas presents. It's probably one of my favorites for one thing. The marketing gimmick on the packaging advertised this back massager as 'DANGEROUSLY PLEASURABLE.' Hence the rest of the day I ran around saying "Lookout, it's dangerous!" and would proceed to hold it up. Here's Lauren trying to destroy the massager so it won't hurt any of the children. Anyway, I'll blog about my light painting excursion in just a little bit.

Thursday Part 2 (a.k.a Friday)

So I'm a liar. Or a lush. I'm not sure which, but either way I didn't blog the second part of yesterdays last night because I ended up at Bingo after work and consequently went to the bar afterwards. Of course I didn't earn any money. (In fact all I did was spend it) Good times either way. But anyway, here's what's going on with my life for the past week. I went home for Christmas last week. I spent from Wednesday to Sunday. Stephanie and I got engaged on Friday. I mostly spent the break hanging out with my parents and Steph. After Sunday I went to Steph's until Tuesday morning. I helped her parents setup their wireless network in the house although Dana's computer was having a problem accepting the wireless card. I got back Tuesday and worked until 6:30 p.m. Kempen was back in town so him and I hit up Roc's for a beer or two. The rest of this week I've just been working around the house and working at Pizza Hut. I'm supposed to be getting my car back today, but World Class Collision are a bunch of liars so I doubt it will be done at 5:30 when they say it will.

Here's a recap of my Christmas gifts. Stephanie and her whole family got me the iPod Nano. My parents got me a camera bag, but I had to return it because it wasn't the right one. Of course Best Buy wouldn't give me the cash because it was on a credit card. I bought my arm band for the nano and now I have $75 to spend at Best Buy. My grandparents both gave me money. My dad's side got me an American Eagle shirt as well that I returned for a pretty sweet sweater instead. My cousin Jolene got me a hat that says U.S.S. All-Nighters. I was just excited that I get to advertise my alcoholism now. My mom got me these really neat wooden lamps that fold down like tripods. My sister bought me Jimmy Carter's new book Our Endangered American Values which I'm about half way through already. Should be finished by the end of the weekend. All in all it was a good Christmas.

I traded in my old electric guitar and amp for an acoustic Washburn the other day. I fairly pleased with it. I really need to get a guitar tuner though. It's not out of tune that bad, but just enough to annoy you when playing and I'm not very good tuning by ear. Hopefully I can get a hold of one when up at Steph's tomorrow. Speaking of which, I'm headed back up there tonight after work. I just drove from there the other day and I'm already headed back. It's going to be such a long drive. Luckily I'll have my favorite podcasts and music to listen to on the way up. I'm going to be adding a button to my blog as soon as I can figure it out for the Tips From the Top Floor show. As soon as I get my cds back from Steph's I'll be able to add Photoshop here and post some of my own pictures. I have taken a lot since I was at home and want to share, but just haven't had the editing tools or time. Well, I'm off to the coffee shop to prepare for a full day at Pizza Hut.

Thursday Part 1

So it's time to blog about something worthwhile first. I'm going to split today's blog into two seperate ones. My first blog will be about photography and what's going on with me, and my second one will be about what I've been up to and my life.

First of all, I'm in the middle of listening to a podcast called Tips From the Top Floor. The show is hosted by a German photographer named Chris Marquardt. (pictured to the left). I've always found Europeans to be very odd people and Marquardt is no different. His show mostly consists of segments ranging in 6 minute shows to 30-odd minute interviews with other photographers. I started listening to his shows the other day and have blown through about 7 shows so far. By the end of today I should be caught up with his most recent one. (Although there are about 60 others I have not listened to.) It's hard to say whether his shows are always that worthwhile. There are some where I'm inspired to try whatever he is talking about immediately and others I have to keep myself from falling asleep. The one on lightpainting that I listened to was amazing. Of course I tried it later at night and will have to show you what I got later. Matt doesn't have Photoshop on his computer right now and I think I left my cd case of the programs at Steph's this weekend. After I get through the other ones and get caught up I will blog about them.

Secondly, the Chicago Tribune released their best of 2005 photos in the Sunday section of the Chicago Tribune Magazine. I can't say I'm incredibly impressed with all of them, but there are few that I really enjoyed. My absolute favorite of the picks was Kuni Takahashi's picture of an Afghan man smoking heroin in a shotup cargo hold. The way the bullet holes looked like stars was amazing. My favorite portrait was Vince Vaughn on the Loop by Alex Garcia. I never knew Vaughn was from Buffalo Grove let alone Illinois. The picture up above is probably my favorite feature photo I've seen in awhile. It shows the lightheartedness of soldiers in Mosul, Iraq. A definite needed photo for a change of pace from the hard hitting news photos we see everyday.

I'm going to be looking at the MSNBC photos that Stephen posted about last week. I've been so busy and when I was at home I was unable to view anything decent on the internet because of our connection that I haven't even looked at them. Hopefully I'll get to see them tonight. I always find the best way to become a better photographer is to look at better photographer's photographs.

Briefly Speaking

Just a quick one to let you know I'm still alive. I'm back in good ole Chucktown. My car is STILL not finished. He said it should be Friday now. I'm back at Pizza Hut. Kempen and I hit up Roc's last night. First time I've been there in a couple of months. I'm working the rest of the week at the Hut and then going back to Stephanie's for New Year's Eve. I wish there was some sort of frequent driver miles I could accumulate. Anyway, a quick recap on X-mas gifts I got. I got an iPod nano from Steph, I got a camera bag from my parents, both my grandparents gave me money and my mom found me these lamps that fold down like tri-pods. They're actually pretty neat. Just wish I had somewhere to put them, so I left them home for now. I'll post a few holiday pics later on, but I really need to go read because I haven't done that in awhile. Til later.

I'm Engaged

So it's official. Stephanie finally got me to propose to her. (Okay so I really wanted to do it, but we won't let on to that ;) I finally got a chance to blog after being home for a few days. I'm obviously not happy having dialup. I'm actually getting ready to watch Citizen Kain for the first time with my dad. We just finished up Cindarella Man which is quite possibly my 2nd favorite boxing movie behind Raging Bull. Anyway, I'm going to Steph's tomorrow for Christmas Day. I'll be up there until Tuesday morning. We have to have her ring resized as it was way to big for her hand. Hopefully there actually is a Kay Jewelers by her. Well I don't want to take up too much time of this movie. I just have to say that I'm exuberant about being engaged. It feels a little wierd, but I think it will come with time. The hardest part is saying "This is my fiance Stephanie," instead of "This is my girlfriend," when introducing her to people. I only slipped once last night at the bar with it though. Likely to say she was really excited and started crying, but eventually said "yes!" She only had to make about 100 phone calls afterwards, but the funny part was nearly everyone already knew.

So I hate dial up with a passion. This is the only photo I can get to load from the other night right now. If this damn internet will start working better here I'll add some more photos.

Good news though, the House has only approved the Patriot Act for another 5 weeks rather than 6 months. Unfortunately I don't think any of these politicians will ever get it through their thick skulls that this is America where we are founded upon the principles of freedom. Allowing government agencies to review and wiretap phone conversations without prior approval by some sort of a panel is Constitutionally wrong morally apprehensive. Thanks a lot GOP.

Pizza Hut+Cowboys=Blackmail

I'm home. After 3 hours in a car going in and out of thick fog I made it home around 1:15 a.m. Not bad considering it usually takes me 3.5 hours to get home. The fog was the worse part of it. Parts of the road I couldn't even see more than 10 feet in front of me. Thought a cop was going to pull me over twice. I came up on his stakeout spot doing about 80 mph, but he didn't even flinch. I listened to "The Long Road Home: The Ultimate John Fogerty-Creedence Collection" on my way home for the most part. The cd is amazing. Everything you'd expect from Fogert and Creedence. Thank god someone else owns Fantasy Records now allowing him to publish his material once again.

Anyway, I got to do a little camera tossing, but that's not the greatest picture I have. (Although I was very pleased with them.) Pizza Hut has been ran over by cowboys. My assistant manager Robert came into work with my manager Marvin sporting fake guns and cowboy hats in celebration The Paws weekly Country and Western night. Here's Robert trying to hold up Dennis at the cash register. Dennis must obviously know they're fake guns otherwise he would have pulled out a "Magic" card and summoned The Goblin Tinker to vanquish Robert and the other cowboys. I'll have to add a few more pictures at a later date because I'm on dial up. The camera tossing photos will be up later today so check back soon.

Lou loves the Hut

While delivering at Pizza Hut tonight I had the oppurtunity to deliver to Eastern Illinois President Lou Hencken. This is the third time in two weeks I have either delivered to Lou or seen him at the restaurant. I delivered to a party in honor President Hencken last week, I saw him in the store two days later, and then I delivered to him last night. Work was pretty slow again. I imagine it will be the same tonight. With barely any college students here I only take about 6 or 7 deliveries in a night compared to around 20. I have so much time to get all my stuff done and then sit and read. I've been reading this series in the Tribune for the past couple of days about a guy named Alexei Sultanov, a European pianist who suffered multiple strokes paralyzing most of his body. Even though he couldn't communicate he still taught himself to learn to play the piano again with his right hand while his wife Dace would accompany him. Quite an entertaining article. It was a three part series appearing Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

I'm almost finished with my book that Nora got me for graduation. It should have been finished about 2 weeks ago, but if you know me you know I'll start a book and now finish it for a month. I think I'm going to be doing a little camera tossing tonight at work. As soon as I'm done with work I'm heading home tonight. Trying to get back as soon as I can because I'm not going to have too many days to spend there. I'm really only going to be there tomorrow, Friday and Saturday and Sunday. Steph really wants to know what her X-mas present is, but I won't even give her a clue. It drives her nuts because I don't even ask questions about my present. You'd think after 3 previous Christmases (Is that grammatically correct?) together she'd figure out I won't even give her clues, but it's still fun to torment her I guess. I'll probably blog tonight once I get home. Should be about 1 or 2 in the morning.

I'm a tosser, but not in the British sense

So I'm officially a tosser. A camera tosser that is. I decided to go out directly after work and bust my tossing cherry by going to Old Main. For those of you who have no idea what the heck I'm talking about, camera tossing is when you set your camera to a long shutter, toss the camera in the air and try to get something cool like this photo. Haas turned me on to this because had apparently found a blog site dedicated to it. I'm glad I went out to try it even though it's most likely in the single digits tonight. I'll keep doing this and add them to my website under a seperate section as soon as I get around to it. Speaking of, I updated a little bit on the essay section today. I added the Slideshow Pro. Learning it really wasn't that bad, it just took me a little time. Of course I messed up the coding by not inserting one slash and Stephen had to come bail my ass out again. Him and I were supposed to do some camera tossing together tonight, but he has a X-mas party with Mal and I didn't want him to leave early just because I wanted to fling a couple thousand dollars worth of equipment in the air at 11 p.m. on a Monday night. These were quite possibly my two favorites of the night. I saw some on the blog site that looked really neat that I might try. One in particular was just throwing it in the air with it pointing at myself and twirling to make it look like a photoshop trick. The guy that did it on the blog was Vincent Pants. Strange guy I take it by his flickr photos, but every once in awhile he has something neat. Anyway, the only section I've updated so far on the essay section. I'm still tweaking the program a bit and getting the settings exactly how I want them. Eventually i'll add some audio to them as well. I'm in love with this program. It's quite easy once you get used to it. I'll add the other essays I did this semester either later tonight or tomorrow. I should be doing some major overhaul on my site soon. I really not happy with it right now. I'm not sure what will make me happy, but it's not as neat and clean as I would like it to be. I'll be heading home this Wednesday night after work. Steph will be down the next night for my sister's birthday party and then on Friday I'm taking her to Biaggi's. Should be a good time.

Back in the Blog

I'm back boys and girls. I know it's been a long time, but I finally finished up everything with school. I have no more assignments, no more tests, and no more classes. I'm excited, nervous and scared all in one. I'm mostly putting all my hours in at Pizza Hut right now which is a drag, but I need the money really bad. I finished my last photo essay today and turned it into Poulter. I was somewhat impressed with my tow truck driving one. Here's an example of an image from the other day. The guys name is Brian Wilkerson. I have the others listed on my Cropreality site under the essay section. I'm tweaking it a bit in order to get things formatted correctly. I'm going to post the marching band one tomorrow and the Halloween one possibly tomorrow or the next day. I'm going to teach myself how to use Slideshow Pro because Simpleviewer isn't letting me put in long cutlines. So for now my photos are up but the captions are not. Hope everyone enjoys them. Feel free to comment on them. That's what this site is for. Be positive or negative, my only rule, be constructive. I'm not looking for people to tell me I did a good job when they think it's crap. It's not going to hurt my feelings I just really like user feedback. Tell me which one's your favorite and which one's your least favorite. I know Haas will give me honest feedback for sure. Speaking of Haas, I wonder how he's feeling today. He looked like he was feeling good last night after his third bottle of Arbor Mist. Last night was good times. I'm just waiting for Haas to post the pictures. We need to scan all the photos people had from last night and post them. If I get any of them I'll post here. We're looking at a possible Buffett party tonight. At least that's what Paulie and I discussed.

Oh by the way, I got my internship. I find out later today how many hours a week I'm going to be working. (20 or 40) I'm excited. I hope I get to shoot some Big 10 basketball for the Illini. Looking to make a few connections here and there too. Just found out Haas will be going to the Superbowl as well to be a Sports Illustrated assistant. Hey Haas, do you think the assistants get assistants because I could totally do it. Anyway, I'm about to head off to work again so no more for now. If I get anything else updated I will let you know asap. God it feels good to be back in the blog.

Been Busy

So I haven't updated in about a week, so I just thought it was finally time to update what I've been up to. First of all, I went to Biggs bachelor party in Tinley Park Saturday night. The drive up there was absolutely horrible. A snow storm came in as we were driving up which started out as freezing rain. A 2.5 hour drive turned into 4 hours. All in all, once we got up there it was a good time, minus Matt being thrown out of the club at the end of the night for fighting with the bouncers about his coat. (Which Shilney actually had).

Other than that I've been working on my projects for class. I've been involved with building the Sigma Nu website for my online class and also reviewing the Guardian Unlimited website for the same class. I haven't had a chance to really use my camera except last week I took some photos at a party at my house. I'm trying to bust the camera out more often at parties. As soon as I get some edited I'll post a few. I'm still waiting to hear from Champaign. I'm supposed to hear a decision today as to whether I'll get my internship. As soon as I hear I'll update.

X-mas wishlist

Here is a short comprised list of things I would like for Christmas:

1. iPod Nano (2GB)
2. Grateful Dead Bean Bear (Lovelight, El Paso, Katie Mae, Shark Star, Shakedown)
3. Seinfeld Season 3
4. Tamrac Pro 12 Camera Bag
5. Jason Varitek Red Sox jersey
6. Any Jawbreaker CD
7. Grateful Dead's Working Man's Dead
8. Wireless XBox controller (off ebay)
9. Airsoft Pistol (Wal-Mart)
10. Boston Red Sox Hat (size 7 3/4)
11. Boston Red Sox 2005 World Series

If I find more I'll post another.

TGIF

The weekend is officially here. I got off work tonight around 11:15. Was expecting to come home to a nice quiet evening of either hanging out or just going to bed, but as is the usual course people were drinking at my house. Hopefully people leave somewhat early tonight. i.e. by 3 a.m. I was such a waste of space today. I stayed up drinking until 4 a.m. last night and didn't do anything productive until at least 3:30 p.m. today. I at least got a run in though before work.

I'm going to do a little research on what I want for Christmas this year. Stephanie needs some ideas and so does my mom. Of course I really want an iPod Nano, but I'm not sure I'll be able to get one or not. Maybe I could talk my parents into making it my x-mas/birthday present. It's only 2 months away and then it would already be done. I could also just buy half of it myself too.

I know I probably want to get a music dvd or two. I'll put my list up here later after I've compiled it fully. If anyone wants to they can go ahead and by me a 70-200mm f/2.8 Canon lens. It's only like $1699 brand new. I already know I'm getting a gift certificate from my grandmother this year and will get another one from my other grandparents.

We should be starting the weekend off with a party tomorrow night which is good because we need to build this pot up big time.

I finally picked up my camera after almost a week. It's been a long needed break. I find out tomorrow whether or not I got my internship. I'm nervous to be honest. I'll also be getting my car in the middle of next week. Well, time to do some research. Maybe I'll post when I get it done.

Free At Last

The past few days have been a lot more relaxing and less stressful than I can remember in a long time. I'm still working on my final project for my online class and trying to figure out my last photo essay, but other than that, I've had more time to do things I've really needed to do. Like working out, reading, and making some money at the Hut. I finished reading Hunter S. Thompson's "Better Than Sex" last night. I'm not sure whether I'm huge fan of Thompson. All I really got out of the book is that politics is a bitch, Richard Nixon was evil and George Bush Sr. is just as evil. A lot of this I really knew. It was hard to tell what was semi-fiction in the book and what was for the most part true. The saddest part of it all is that in Hunter's world, it was all true. Maybe I should try to read another one of his books like "Fear and Loathing" in Las Vegas. "Better than Sex" was actually part of his Gonzo Papers Collection. It's possible that's why the book had very little direction to it.

Today I started reading Nick Hornby's "A Long Way Down" which Nora bought me as a graduation gift. It's a book about four people who meet on a rooftop that is infamous for people committing suicide off of. I just realized that it's really wierd that I just finished reading a book about a guy who committed suicide and now I'm reading one about four people who try to committ suicide. That's actually just pure coincidence. (Somehow I feel like I'm going to get several calls from friends tonight asking if I'm alright.)

I also just finished watching Ken Burns' "Unforgivable Blackness." The life story of the first black heavyweight champion. I think this is the first time I really realized the ignorance of so many people in the first half of the century. I think it must have been Burns' way of portraying Johnson and white people, but it affected me a lot. I couldn't imagine living in a period where about 50 white people would line up on a bridge or near tree where they had just hung another human being and stand there with dead corpse and pose for a picture like they had just bagged a deer. Makes me sick to my stomach.

Stephen got a job at the Journal Gazette-Times Courier so congratulations to him. I wonder if this means there's no shot at an internship there now. I'm still waiting to hear back from the . I really hope I get that now. If not I'll still try to pressure the Times-Courier or I'll just hang out for the next few months and work at Pizza Hut or Roc's or find a factory job around here. Doing any of those couldn't be good for my mental health though. I need out of Charleston in a bad way.

Chucktown

Back in Chucktown after a nice week of relaxing. Unfortunately, the Panthers lost to Southern on Saturday. I tried to listen to the game, but it was a little difficult at Steph's. First I had to help her with some organizing stuff so I missed the first half, and then the computer was cutting in and out. Quicktime was not my friend that day. Oh well. Congratulations to the EIU Panthers for a spectacular season. They went undefeated in the conference with an overall record of 9-3. Today I'm trying to get some school work done and then I have to work at Pizza Hut again. I'm uploading the new prototype for the Sigma Nu website later today, so if it isn't up when you check it, check back later. I have a feeling I'm going to find myself in the newsroom more than I was when I actually worked here. I'm also finishing up an essay today as soon as Scott Kelley calls me back so I can interview him. I will load it to my site if I finish it tonight. I'm really sad I don't have a key to the newsroom anymore. Now I'll just have to call Eric and make him come let me in.

Sad News

Ryan Coder, an alumnus of the Lambda Gamma Chapter of Sigma Nu at Eastern Illinois passed away on Thursday November 24. I received both an email and a phone call concerning his death. Here is the email:

Brothers,

I was just informed of some terrible news. Ryan Coder passed away yesterday. We do not know much but the preliminary autopsy results show heart failure. Ryan was a great person and I am glad to have known him. I have attached what arrangements I am aware of below. Since not everyone checks into the website, please pass this along to everyone that you can think of. My thoughts and prayers go out to Ryan friends and family.


Tuesday, November 29th 3-9pm

Cumberland Funeral Chapels

8300 West Lawrence Avenue, Norridge, IL 60706

(708) 456-8300
For directions:
http://www.cumberlandchapels.com

Sadly I did not get to know Coder at all until this last alumni weekend when we spent a little time at Marty's together, but from what I did get out of my time with him, Coder was a lot of fun to be around and loved Sigma Nu a great deal. I should be going to his wake with the rest of our guys to support his family during this time of sadness. If there are any good stories posted on the alumni website I will update the blog or post a new one to link to it.

"I Walk The Line"

Went to see Walk the Line yesterday with my father. Walk the Line, the life story of Johnny Cash starts with his life as a poor Arkansas child growing up on a farm. James Mangold, the movies director chose to start with this to show the strong relationship Cash had with his older brother Jack. Johnny (Joaquin Phoenix) born with the name JR, was born in 1932. The story picks up in 1944 when JR goes fishing one day and his brother Jack has to cut boards for a saw mill. Jack is caught in the machine and mangled. JR's alcoholic father Ray Cash (Robert Patrick) comes looking for JR asking him "Where have you been?" in a demeaning manner. In the movie Mangold makes it seem as if Jack dies the same day he comes home from the hospital. In actuality, Jack suffers for a week and then dies. Their father, in a drunken stooper one night, blames JR for Jack's death and tells him the wrong son died. JR never forgives his father for this.

The movie jumps about 6 or 7 years into the future when JR is leaving for the army. When enlisting into the army, they refuse to accept initials as a name so he is dubbed John. I was actually disappointed because Mangold failed to mention anything about Johnny's high school career or how he learned how to play guitar. It was almost like, hey, this guy just picked it up one day and knew how. While in the army, Johnny writes his first song "Folsum Prison Blues" after seeing the movie "Inside the Walls of Folsum Prison." We then learn of Johnny's high school sweetheart Vivian whose father disapproves of their relationship. Johnny returns from Germany and marries Vivian. Cash sells appliances until one day he has the guts to approach Sun Records and try to produce a record. In a dramatic scene, Johnny returns home late one night after recording and tells Vivian he finally made a record. Mangold portrays Vivian as a hard working wife, but very unsupportive of his career as a musician. They're both ecstatic with the production of a record though.

Cash begins to tour shortly after the song "Cry Cry Cry" begins to gain prestige. His next album "Folsum Prison Blues" makes the country top 5 and the song "I Walk the Line" is Johnny's first #1 song on the country billboard. While touring there is the inevitable fall into drugs and alcohol that so many singers and entertainers fall into. Mangold chose to portray this as a sort of peer pressure venture that Cash got wrapped up into because Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis and the other guys all did it. Cash quickly became dependant on the amphetamines he was taking and later moved onto barbituates as well.

It was also on tour that Cash met June Carter. Cash's marriage life had taken a sour turn even though he and his wife Vivian had recently had a child named Rosanne. Cash would have 3 other daughters. Cash and Carter have a one night affair in the movie and later he and his wife split. Johnny buys a place near Hendersonville, Tenn. Johnny finally confronts his father on Thanksgiving day while jacked up on pills about the blame he placed on Johnny for his brother's death. Ray only says "I quit drinking a long time ago."

June stays that day to help Johnny at the request of her own parents and she helps him to kick his drug addiction. Cash credited her up to his death with helping him get straight. 1968, Johnny proposes to June one last time on stage and she finally says yes after rejecting him several times before. They were married a week later and remained married for 35 years when June passed away due to complications with surgery.

The film altogether was a pretty nice film. Unfortunately, "Ray" last year's big box office hit holds a very similar plot line and this film will most likely go underrated. Reese Witherspoon plays an excellent and sassy June Carter. Probably nobody better for the role. Phoenix could have been a more convincing Cash though. There were just times when I didn't believe him. I also wish Mangold would have explained the significance of Johnny's brother Jack. He shows us the horror of his brother's death but fails to relate it later in the movie. Johnny was very close to his brother and spoke of his anticipation of meeting with him in heaven. We also never learn how he learned to play guitar either or how music affected his early life. There were just small bits and pieces of Cash's life that were left out that could have made the movie much more interesting. I dislike the lack of any real footage as well. Good directors can incorporate live footage in an artistic fashion to add flare and originality to a movie. Overall, I would give this movie a 3.5 out of 5. It's a good movie to take a date too even if you're not a country music fan.

Finally Home

I finally got home last night around 8 p.m. I was hoping to leave for home Sunday night after work at Pizza Hut, but I wasn't able to get my rental car until Monday. I called the Unitrin insurance company Monday and strong-armed them into a rental car. It had been nearly a week since my accident. I worked out with Nick Irle yesterday morning and then fixed the window on the side of my house. I got all the rest of my luggage ready while I was waiting to hear from Unitrin. Unitrin worked it out with Enterprise and approved me for a car. World Class Collision had them meet me in Charleston, drive me to the place, and then get me the car. I was pretty impressed. They gave me a 2006 Chevy Impala LS. It had only 5000 miles on it. After getting home last night I visited with my parents. I went back to Galesburg at nine to help Justin setup his display in the Sandburg Mall for his drumshop. After the mall we went back to his place and visited with his girlfriend Anne. I got my camera back that I let her borrow awhile ago. Maybe now I can use the film that Stephen let me have last year. Justin had bought the movie "Fletch" at Wal-Mart earlier that day for $5. I decided I needed to buy it as well since it's an 80s classic. I also picked up Saturday Night Live: The Best of Phil Hartman. Made it home around midnight and passed out around 1 or 1:30.

Today I woke up and jumped in the shower. I called Stacie and took a tour of the Quad City Times newspaper. After that I went Christmas Shopping for Steph. I'd tell you what I got her, but she might be reading this. After the Quad Cities I came home, helped cleanup the house and then went for a run. I'm glad I'm keeping my running schedule up. We then sold the Stratus to Rodney and Colleen for Chelsea to drive. Thankgod we got rid of that.

Dad and I had talked about going to see Walk the Line tonight, but we'll see if that actually happens or not. The movie starts in less than an hour and Dad's not home yet. I'll probably stay in and work on homework if we don't go. I'll probably blog some more about the Redsox or the Panthers. If we do I'll review the movie afterwards.

EIU policy strikes again

Once again EIU has proven less intelligent than expected from a University. The policy for returning to campus this Thanksgiving break is that students may return to campus by 1:00 p.m. Sunday. In general circumstances who would want to return any earlier to this god forsaken town.

The problem here lies in the fact that Eastern Illinois will be hosting Southern Illinois for the first round of Division I-AA football playoffs on Saturday.

The school where faculty do nothing but complain about that lack of school spirit is the same school hosting a playoff football game where students aren't going to be able to attend.

I realize the playoffs come at a very untimely part of the school year and this is not Eastern's fault because policies have been set in place before football playoffs ever did, but Eastern should react and change their residence policy and send emails to all on-campus students.

I know if I lived in a dorm and wanted to watch the football game I would be livid. Guess it's a good thing that I don't live on campus anymore.

Eastern draws Salukis

Eastern Illinois will face off against Southern Illinois Salukis Saturday November 26 at O'Brien Stadium in Charleston, Ill. for the first round of Division I-AA football playoffs.

Eastern with a record of 9-2 in the regular season will be without their starting strong safety Tristan Burge. According to a team source Burge broke his ankle when trying to pick off a pass during the last play of their game vs. Jacksonville State Saturday.

Defense has been a major key in many of Eastern's games this year.

Eastern was an automatic bid after beating Jacksonville 10-6 Saturday. The Salukis (8-3) won an at-large-bid into the playoffs.

Eastern Illionois has been to the playoffs 6 times under head coach Spoo's 18 year reign, losing in the first round each year except in 1989 when the Panthers reach the quarterfinals.

Panthers Win!

EIU panthers officially reclaimed the title of OVC Championships as well as guaranteed a birth to the NCAA-IAA playoff Saturday Jacksonville State University Saturday, defeating the Gamecocks 10-6.

The Panther's only touchdown came late in the second half after a 93 yard drive.

As I predicted the game was decided among the defenses. Eastern even stopped Jacksonville on a 1st and goal. (one of the plays being from the 1 and a half yard line.

The Panthers will find out who they play tomorrow. Students and fans can watch together in the Student Rec Center Sunday at noon.

Rumors say it will most likely be a midwest team and analysts are predicting a Southern Illinois University at Eastern Illinois University.

Junior strong safety Tristan Burge injured his ankle on the last play of the game though. Burge got caught in a pile of players and jumped for a last second pass from Jacksonville knocking it down but appeared to roll his ankle. Early reports from Eastern trainers say his ankle was not broken.

Johnny Damon Offer

Johnny Damon was officially offered a three-year deal worth between $27 million and $30 million Thursday from the Boston Red Sox according to the Boston Red Sox homepage and the Boston Globe. The 33-year-old Red Sox center fielder who hit .316 in the 2005 season reportedly wants a longer deal. The Globe's Gordon Edes and Chris Snow say their is a possibility for a 4th year option in the deal. Damon has repeatedly shown interest in remaining in Boston. Damon said he feels he could play center field for another 4 or 5 years and then move into left field to finish off his career.

So much for the rumors about Damon coming to the Cubs. I could honestly care less either way. Damon's career .290 batting average would be of great help to the Cubs and give them the lead-off hitter they thought they were getting with Garciaparra, but let's face it. The Cubs are still struggling with their pitching. The team may have scored 703 runs, but they gave up 714 according to baseballreference.com. Comparing that to the Central Division champion St. Louis Cardinals 634 runs allowed shows the Cubs are in dire need of pitching before batters.


The way it looks right now, Damon will settle with the Red Sox, leaving many teams, especially the Cubs, disappointed. I can completely understand Damon's concern for a longer contract, but at the same time I would be hesitant to give him anything longer than 3 years with an option as they have. Damon's 2005 season was his 2nd highest batting average since he left the Kansas City Royals or the Sox in 2000 with a .320 average. Damon is a solid player and proves himself time and time again. The team has until December 7 to offer him arbitration. If they fail to offer it, dealings with the Sox will cease until May 11.

The Red Sox should go ahead and offer him arbitration if he fails to accept the current deal. Worst case scenario, Damon gets more money than originally planned. With the Sox looking to unload Manny Ramirez this year there should be extra money in the near future anyway.

As a Cubs fan and a Red Sox fan I would rather see Damon stay in Boston. Damon is not going anywhere for a cheap price. No Damon in Chicago means more money that can be devoted to pitching. Not to mention the Sox would be losing two outfielders rather than one. (pending a Ramirez trade.)

Daily Update

I finally heard from the insurance company around 5 p.m. today. They now have to send a person out to check out my car to make sure they do their own estimate. It's going to be another 24 to 48 business hours until I actually hear from them though. That's if Jeff Hale called them back today before they left. It looks as though I will probably have my car in the shop by Monday and get them going. I was originally going to take it to Porter Autobody, but now I think I'm going to take it to World Class Collision because of the helpful assistance they've given me. The guys were extremely nice to me while I was there and they even called earlier tonight to see if they could get things moving with it. I hope it gets taken care of really quick. It's cold as hell and I don't really want to drive 75 down the interstate with a bag for a window.

Pica Pole was also tonight. I had a lot of fun and I handed down a few funny things to Eric. I was really happy I found the photo book to give to Eric. I thought we had lost it, but it was just on the shelf. I think the funniest thing was when I gave him the doodle pad for photo illustrations. The whole newsroom signed a sheet of paper with a Daily Eastern News header and my mug next to it. Everyone had some really nice things to say about me. It made me feel really good.

It was kind of sad to be my last day working for the DEN. I have to pack my stuff up in here to take home. Of course I'm glad to have some free time back, but it means I'm going to have to grow up now. Time to start looking for a job. I do have an intership with News-Gazette in Champaign tomorrow. I've already done freelance for them so hopefully that gives me a little edge.

Delivery Driver's Beware...They're Out To Get Us!

I Was minding my own business tonight driving along Lincoln Ave. delivering a pizza to the Southeast end of town when a black '68 Chevy ran directly into the side of me trying to cross Lincoln from 2nd Street. Jeffrey Hale of Charleston, Ill., slammed his '68 Chevy 1500 directly into the driver's side rear door smashing the glass out of the and sending me into a quarter spin. Luckily for me he missed the driver's door of the car and no other cars were in sight. Hale immediately came to make sure I was alright, but i was already on the phone with 911. I had them send a police officer out, which by the way, was way to long of a response time. It took at least 8 or 9 minutes for a police officer to arrive after I phone in the call. Maybe it was because there were no injuries, but I would assume they would take all precautions and show up as soon as possible. Hale and I stood there trying to figure out what to say to each other for those first few minutes. Hale did apologize realizing it was his fault. He said he simply didn't see me at all. Likely to say that was the end of delivering pizzas for the night. Hale said he has insurance, but could not present documentation of it at the time. (I SURE AS HELL HOPE HE DOES). In fairness, Hale does live in a nicer part of the town where I would assume he has insurance, and even if not, he doesn't look to be short of any money. The reason I say "they're out to get us" is because Sunday night, Josh Verdeyen, a fellow Pizza Hut delivery driver was involved in a 2 car accident on the job as well. The lady in front of him pulled a "U"ie in front of him causing him to hit her vehicle. Her insurance is paying for a rental car of his until his estimate and car are done. I'm hoping the same will happen with Hale's insurance company considering Thanksgiving is next week and I'm leaving Monday to drive home. I don't really want to drive home with plastic bag over my window and a door that looks like it could fall off. It really sucks when you get a new car and somebody carelessly runs into it. Hell, why couldn't it have been on my old Dodge Stratus. I wouldn't have even cared if it had been that car. The door was already in bad shape because of a botched bondo job. I could have gotten the door replaced, then sold the car for a good amount of money. Now the value of my car depreciates because somebody ran into me and I won't be able to get nearly what I payed out of it. I guess I could always hope for the damage to be more than the car is actually worth. Not likely though considering the visible damage. In the end I'm just glad I wasn't hurt and neither was the other driver. Had I not been so quick to swerve into the right lane and slam on the brakes it would have probably hit my door and broke my arm or worse given me a concussion. It really is true what they say though, time slows down so you see every moment right before you get into an accident. I can remember actually seeing the glass flying in front of my eyes as it flew from the window. Probably one of the most surreal things I've ever been in.

Testing Flickr

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Originally uploaded by cropreality.

I'm just testing flickr's "blog this" option by trying to blog this photo from my macro art section. Possibly going to do some day macro if I have the time today.

Flickr Badge

I finally got flickr figured out...I think I put a link badge down below on the sidebar under "recent photos" with some of my photos from last night. I'll update it every so often or whenever I get the chance. I think there may be another way to actually update it whenever I put a new photo in, but I have yet to figure that out yet. I also need to add a "cool people section" or something comparable so I can link to other people's blogs. Finally got my photo up on the profile section as well. Hopefully Thursday night I'll be able to sit in here and learn how to use Slideshow Pro so that I can change my website over.

Just a taste

Well it's 2 a.m. and I wanna go to beeeeehhhheeeed. I didn't get all the photos done. I only got about 6 or 7 that I was at least somewhat happy with. I gave you a little taste. This was my favorite of the night. Maybe I'll make it an ongoing series while exploring different areas of the campus at certain times of the day/night. This was the Lumpkin Hall exhibit I guess.

Let the Rain Fall

Today started out beautiful with a lot of sun and a mild temperature. Coming into the newsroom at noon this morning riding my bike felt like a typical nice day. About 3 hours later the clouds moved in and rain ensued. On most normal days I would have begun to become depressed as a photograher because my beautiful light had been stolen from me. Feeling even lazier than I did before I decided to sit in the newsroom for a good portion of the afternoon to finish up some long needed website maintenance. Later in the evening as the sun began to fade and the lights around campus turned on a photographer on our staff came in with a few pictures from pepper plants outside Lumpkin Hall. The plants were lit be the lights lining the sidewalk creating a very neat look especially with the droplets of water on them. Naturally this peeked my interest in shooting some macro art. Lately I've become obsessed with closeups of naturally found scenes. The rain water is what really make these closeups look more beautiful. I think macro art is really making me appreciate the things that are always there but you never really notice. The images should be available late tonight/early tomorrow after I get done working out and cleaned up.

Revamping the Blog

After realizing that updating an html page everyday that I post a blog and creating a new page for the links, ect., I have decided to use this blog site as my blog thanks to the help of Stephen Haas, from www.haasphotography.com. This blog site is much easier to update and looks far more professional than one that I have time or the ability to create right now. I'm currently in the process of changing to Slideshow Pro rather than using Simpleviewer for Cropreality because of the use of longer cutlines. Slideshow Pro allows for extended cutlines and has a pop down feature for the info that adds a cool effect. Before the end of the semester I will be changing the entire look of te website. The way it's setup now is fine for the purposes I needed to serve at the time, but I want to move to a more basic look on the front page and minimize the amount of links off the front page so that Slideshow Pro just pops up after clicking on the link. I'm also in the process of finding a photo randomizer. The randomizer will allow for different photos to pop up on the mainpage so it looks like the website is updated regularly. It's an easy trick that makes websites look nicer and adds interest to the website. Haas has one on his website that works really well with about 10 images that change when the site is loaded. I'm either going to copy the html from the pagesource or find the program he used. Two new things needed added to the website are an "about me" section and a "links" section. The about me section should be finished soon as it will be necessary for showing potential employers.

Opening Day

Today is the first day my website is available online. This site is intended to showcase my photographic skills as well as to help me get a job. Right now I'm running through Eastern Illinois University's server which will have to change in the coming months as I'm graduating. As soon as I change servers I will buy a domain name, most likely www.cropreality.com and begin a few new renovations. As I'm fairly new to a lot of this stuff I may be changing the look of this site soon as I learn more about web applications like simpleviewer and slideshow pro. I'm also looking to find a more sophisticated blog script for the site so it will be an official blog with feedback from users. The essays section will be up in the next week or two as soon as I can locate the original files. While I was working on the website I accidently downsized the images and saved over them so the one's available are at minimum quality. If anyone wishes to contact me you can do so through email at cropreality@yahoo.com or by phone at 309.368.6918. I'm always looking for freelance jobs or comments on my photos.