Fantasy Blog Stock Market???

Interesting little bit I discovered while being vain today. I decided to google the word cropreality. Obviously the name of this blog and what I use as my screenname for many things as well as what my 'side business' is called. (Cropreality Imaging). Anyway, I started seeing this website popup called Blog Shares. I was curious as to why my blog would show up on this and I started looking at it. It seems this is a fantasy blog stock market of sorts. The reason mine was on there was because by my linking to Tips From the Top Floor, I had helped it earn B$687.00. That's blog money for those of you unfamiliar. (Not actually real) I was in the top 100 earners for their site. Sitting at number 23. I guess not too big of a deal since there were only 81 links to the site, but hey, don't burst my bubble. I'm not sure how often they update, but I will do some research into. I've decided to start whoring myself by promoting Tips From the Top Floor now and see how much worth I can get them. Let's get these numbers moving people.

And Stephen Thought He Was Bored

See what happens when you're bored and it's midnight.

This is either the result of me playing too much of this roleplaying game I just beat or it's due to me playing 'In the Dark' by The Grateful Dead one too many times. Suffice to say I am bored. I just finished the videogame I've been playing for two weeks, Fable, a very in-depth first person/role playing/medieval/I'm a huge nerd. The good thing is that I admit it, embrace it, and now maybe I can get help. Doubtful. I basically just wanted to play with light. I might try some other stuff tonight but I'm getting tired. I have to work from 1:30-10 again tomorrow.

I must make a small correction before Nora yells at me again. The photo problem with the blogs is not Eric's fault. It's Wills. I stand corrected Nora. I need to add the DEN blogs to my site. I really like Holly's blog. It's probably because I agree with her on many things.

One last thing. I'm working on a project for Stephen. Nothing big. I can't tell you what it is, but I think he'll appreciate it. He seems really down lately about his job. I would be too if I was as good of a photographer stuck in Mattoon.

Shame on you Charleston!

For those of you that think there is no such thing as discrimination apparently you haven't been south of Chicago lately. A news article in the DEN talks about how Charleston will not be celebrating Black History Month. Now I understand what the city says, but this is definitely not good PR for a city in southern Illinois with a dominant black community on the campus. What do you teach the kids at school when you don't celebrate it.

I for one am fully supportive of the month. I know, I know. More hippy liberal crap, but honestly. Black History Month is an important time in our year for us to reflect on the ways blacks were mistreated and to learn from our mistakes. It would be like a history books saying they acknowledge World War II happened and that Nazi concentration camps took place, but we're not going to fill the pages of our book with that because it's not state mandated.

I think the city council and the community as a whole should be utterly ashamed of themselves. It's possible the city just doesn't know how to celebrate it. In that case maybe they need to outreach to the community a little more for help. They almost make it seem like BHM is a burden.

Well, at least Morgan Freeman now has a town that he can finally settle down in I guess.

James "monotone" Augustine

So here's a photo from one of my assignments the other day. The photo is of James Augustine laughing at a question from an elementary student after reading a book to them. I"m just surprised the kids stayed awake for the length of the story. Augustine was more monotone than a robotic voice from your computer.

Don't get me wrong, he's a hell of a guy. Really nice and respectful. It was just nice for him to actually show up, unlike Dee Brown who yo can obviously see from the picture is not there. I almost feel bad for James. The goddamned parents were worst than the kids when he showed up.

One lady almost tripped him because she wanted to compare her size to his monstrous 6' 10" build. She snuck up behind while he was talking to someone else without even asking him and stood back to back with him. He backed up and stumbled a bit. The look he rigtfully gave her was like "who the hell are you and what the hell are you doing."

Now I say I almost feel bad for him because as I'm sure his celebrity stardom is burdensome I realize his first paycheck will be more than I'll see in several years as a photographer. So I guess if his arm cramps from signing a few hundred autographs at a time it's worth the millions he'll make. At least his back won't kill him when he gets home because he's been lugging around 2-3 pound Nikon cameras, a bag containing a 3 or 4 pound 80-200 mm lens, and two other bags containing a dyna-lite system in each othem probably each weighing over 5 pounds.

I must say I love little children. They kind of put people like James in their place. Especially when they ask what sport he play, or when they ask what team he plays for and my ultimate favorite, "Who won the Final Four last year?" Absolutely classic moment. James grinds his teeth and finally answered the young kid with North Carolina.

I also got to go up on the grid today in Assembly Hall. We've been having problems with a strobe so me and RK had to go up and look at it. I have to say I held myself pretty good for being up over a hundred feet suspended on steel grates by cables. I wanted to take pictures, but you have to empty your pockets of all unnecessary items and take off all things like cameras. Safety precautions are a bitch. If I ever get a chance to shoot photos of it again I will though for sure.

New Blog!

I started a new seperate blog today. This one will always be my personal random blog dealing with stuff in my life and the other one is a blog focusing on the Champaign/Urbana scene. It will have commentary on music, shows, art exhibits and basically anything there is to do in the Champaign area. Once a week I will post the weeks events and probably tell you what to expect. I will try to profile bands and events whenever possible. So head on over, take a quick look and expect for an update on it soon. By the way, I know the name is horrible. If you have any good suggestions let me know asap.

The Chambana Scene

Layer Masks

Isn't my fiance beautiful. This is the new desktop to my computer.



Now this may not be any shocking news to anyone, but Layer Masks are wonderful for artsy things in photoshop. Here's one I did with a photo of Steph I took last weekend. I really like the way the blue in her eye pops out from the black and white. Most likely I will probably do some more photos like this. In fact I'm going to try and do one with Caity for her and Derek's wedding later this week. I want to make sure I can do it properly. I really like this photo. I thought the lighting coming in from the window was really nice. I wish there was something else really colorful that I could lighten up, but this works for now.

Don't worry, I'm not dead!

This photo pretty much sums up my life right now. Early mornings, coffee, carrying around the News-Gazette mug (company mandated while in the office for beverages) and the bananas show my healthy lifestyle.

I am alive! I know the few of you that read this have been disappointed, but at the same time most of you probably know my situation. I just moved into a new apartment thanks to Derek and Caity in Champaign. I started my internship this week at the News-Gazette. It's going really good. Darrell and the crew have been very generous by sharing their knowledge. I'm learning a lot about lighting right now from John Dixon.

Living arrangements are going good. I think Caity and Derek have had time to adjust to me living here now so I hope I'm not a bother. I've been watching seasons 1,2,3 and 6 of Seinfeld due to lack of my cable. I've drank more coffee this week than I have in the past 12 months, but I feel like I've lost at least 5 pounds. As soon as I find a scale I will fill you in on how my resolutions are going. The news article part probably hasn't been the best, but getting better.

I finally have internet back, but it took a lot of work with routers and modems being the source of the problem. Anyway, I've decide to start a new blog. This one will be focused on the Champaign music scene. Not sure on the name of it yet, but I will blog on here about it as soon as I get the chance.

I have one more blog to do before I go to bed. I have a picture of Steph that I think is really cool that I altered today with the use of Layer Masks. Chris Marquardt did a podcast about layer masks on his 'Tips from the Top Floor Show.' It's something I'm going to try and do with Derek and Caity's wedding as well. I'll do the other blog when I get off the phone with Steph.

All Systems Go

So apparently I can raise the dead...or dead electronics at least!


I got motivated enough to try and fix my computer today. I know, quite a surprise huh? It's going to take me quite awhile to get it fully functional, but it shouldn't be too bad. The next step is to reinstall Windows XP one more time. I need to do a reinstall because right now I have a pirated version of Professional and I don't want to update it because well, it's technically illegal. (Shhhhhhh!!!). I have my actual version of Home edition, but I didn't have the security code for it here. So I'll being doing that later this week along with buying a wireless router to hook up at Katie and Derek's. I also am going to have to redownload all those stupid service packs and security updates. Things are going great this weekend. With they way my life goes I hope I don't show up Tuesday and find out I no longer have an internship or something like that.

Champagne+Suite=Relaxation

Thanks to Steph's bosses for getting her a overnight stay in a hot tub suite last night.

I'm pretty much moved out of my house by now. I have to go back Monday to pick up a few more things and I'll be moving into Derek's later on Monday. This weekend Stephanie and I finally got to use the gift certicate her bosses gave her as a bonus for a free night in the hot tub suite at the Comfort Inn & Suites in Rochelle. We've been waiting for quite sometime to use the certicate, but the wait was finally worth it. It was nice just to have a night to relax after working pretty hard for the last 2 months. We also got to use the certificate she got from them for Christmas which was $100 for Johnny's Charhouse in Dekalb. I got a really nice Ribeye that Steph and I shared and of course I got a Maker's Mark and Seven. Steph got her usual margarita. I guess things just never change.

Before going to dinner we stopped in to Best Buy. I returned the Road Trip that I had purchased and bought a seperate car charger as well as a cassette player for my nano. Now I won't have a constant buzzing when I go to play stuff it in my car. I would not recommend to anyone that you buy the Griffin iTrip or the Griffin Roadtrip. Griffin's FM transmitter's don't work so well, especially when you get into larger cities such as Champaign. I did pick up Jack Johnson's In Between Dreams though. Absolutely love the cd. I think I'm so in love with it just because I've been getting back into acoustic because I traded in for one not too long ago.

Steph has to coach at a game tonight for her poms girls at 6 p.m. and then I think we're going to get a movie and just chill. I'm headed home tomorrow for a little while and then either down to Charleston for the night or staying the night at home then to Charleston to get my shit and get up to Derek's early on Monday. It's kind of a tossup right now. I really need to go visit Sheryl tomorrow. Her mom just passed away the other day. I'm really disappointed I wasn't there for her visitation or anything, but I find it's harder and harder to get back for things these days.

My computer should be up and running by Tuesday or Wednesday I'm hoping. It should be completely back together by today, but I don't have my cds to re-install all the programs and operating system. Then all I'll need is $70 for a wireless router for Derek and Katie's house so I can use the internet.

I've got some more exciting news, but I'll fill you in on that later.

Polar Plunge, well sort of.....

So I took the inevitable plunge into the pond last night. This is what we do when one of us gets engaged or lavalier's their girlfriend. I knew it was coming. Don't ask me what possessed me to propose to Stephanie in the middle of winter, but she's worth it. Let me tell you, the water is as cold as it looks. I don't think that it helped being one of the coldest nights of the week either. This pond trip is bound to make me even more sick than I already am. Luckily I didn't wake up today feeling much worse. I decided to take it light today. I think I'll still go to the rec, but I think I'll only go for like a half hour and won't lift very much. Just abs and cardio for today. Not to mention my neck/back are killing me. I think I had the bar up a little too high when doing squats the other day. If I don't go to the rec at all I need to do somehting really productive like backing up all my images at the newsroom before I leave. We had another scare with the server going down again and I thought I lost a bunch of stuff I really wanted again. I only have 3 days left at Pizza Hut and then I'm off to my internship. Other than that not much has been happening. Hopefully I can resurrect my computer soon so that I can have access to the internet again. In fact, I should probably try to put it back together tonight.

Light Painting

Lightpainting experiment 1



My first attempt at writing letters with light



With the help of Stephen once again I've figured out how to put cutlines under the photos. If I ever win a grammy or some prestigious award I'll have to remind myself to give a shout out to him. Anyway, I've had these images done for about a week now, I just have not had time to post them. I'm going to attempt more light painting in the near future as soon as my house is completely picked up. I tried these after listening to Chris Marquardt's Tips From the Top Floor episode 66. Hopefully I will find more upcoming shows as inspiring as this one was. As I continue to listen to his podcasts, I gain more and more of an appreciation for Chris.

New Year's Resolution

Beer is probably cause for most of my problems so let's cut down on that this year.

This year I've compiled a list of two different kinds of goals. Physical goals and other goals. By this I mean that physical goals have some sort of monetary value or can be measured in some way. The other goals are personal goals that I will only know if I attain and should be laid on my conscience at all times. These are in no particular order and may be amended at anytime. I'm really excited about having some that I could actually check off. I will always update you when I complete one or will let you know the progress on the other ones from time to time. So without further ado.
Physical goals:

1. Weigh 165 lbs by my birthday. ( 10 lbs. in 7 weeks).
2. Do one photo essay I'm proud of.
3. Have my credit card to $0 by December.

Other goals:

1. Read at least one news article a year
2. Drink less beer each week.
3. Complain as little as possible.

All these goals should help me be a better person as well as improve my life physically and mentally. These are the things most important to me right now. If anyone thinks I should add something on here please feel free to comment.

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.