Jack's Mannequin

See What Enthusiasm Does

My ode to Macintosh computers.

I felt that if I was going to be an Apple enthusiast I should at least represent well. Plus this gave me the chance to try something I've been wanting to play with. I'm going to work on this a little bit and figure out how to get rid of the flare at the bottom. I did this using a sync cord on top of my hot shoe with the flash lying directly behind the apple on the base the apple was resting on. It probably would have been a much better photo had I used a bigger apple. The apple I was using was only about 2 in. tall and the flash was slightly taller and wider than the apple. If I get bored tonight, maybe that's what I'll mess with.

I'm planning on reading a little bit more in my book "27 Men Out: Baseball's Perfect Games" tonight if I get the chance. I'm through the third disc of Ken Burn's "Baseball" as of today. I'm not sure if I'll go get the fourth disc tonight or wait until tomorrow. I'm planning on watching "The Office" with Derek tonight if he's home and probably playing a little online poker.

I also got a 2-mile-run in tonight. I haven't ran since Sunday when I did a 4 mile trek that took me much longer because of the snow and ice that started forming. Hopefully I can get a quick 2 miles in tomorrow either on my lunch break or before I go to work at the Hut.

As can be expected, blogging will increase due to my accessibility to doing it now. The only thing I really need is a laptop carrying case now. Well that and a mouse. I hate these little thumb pads. Steph has one, but I need one sooner than she'll be able to get me one. I also found out that my internship ends a week earlier than I expected and a week longer than my boss had anticipated. Either way, this means an extra week to finding a job up north and a week longer for more hours at Pizza Hut.

Entering the Age of Macintosh

This is my blog from my laptop that my grandma bought me for a graduation gift. I was so ecstatic to go pick it up today. I couldn't believe when my grandma called me on Saturday and told I would be getting a new laptop for my gift. She told me to research it and tell her how much it costs. Thinking I would be nice and try to save her as much money as possible I first looked into Dell machines. After realizing it was going to be expensive as hell no matter what I decided to check out some Mac deals. I knew Apple had an education discount, but it wasn't that much ordering online so I decided to stop in the University of Illinois computer store in the union and found out they had overstocked them from Christmas. In fact, the 14 in. iBook G4 in the store was the same price as the 12 in. was online. This one has a slightly faster processor and a much bigger screen for seeing photos much better. After seeing that I could get this laptop for essentially about $200 more than what the Dell's were I decided to ask my grandma about it. She didn't think the price was bad at all. She almost sound suprised at how low. (Almost!) Anyway, I also got it upgraded with another 512 MB of RAM for $60. I actually have a photo to shoot for the blog tomorrow that I'll try to do if I get the time. I feel so lazy because I haven't run in like 3 days, but so running will be first on my list. I do have to mention one thing before I forget. I did reach my first goal of my New Year's resolution. I was 164 lbs. when I woke up on my birthday. I was very excited. I haven't weighed this much since my first semester of college. I'm also in the process of gathering all my old photos to put on flickr. I will begin posting them next week and they will be finished whenever I get them done. Which basically means anywher from 2 weeks to 2 years. I will eventually scan all my old family photos in as well. That way they're preserved in case of an accident. (Or because Dad gets o a Spring cleaning trip).

In other Daniel Williams news, I've been kind of a nut lately. I realize it, but there is nothing I can do about it. I'm trying to figure out how to pay for all my college loans. $43,000 is not an easy debt to erase. Especially when it looks like I'll be spending about $400/month for the next 15 years. I've been talking with Steph all week about it, but have felt really down still. Today has been fine, but best of all I talked to my dad tonight. The saddest part is he didn't really tell me anything different from what Steph told me, but hearing it come from my father made me feel a little bit better. It's conversations like the one's tonight that really make me proud to be son though. There were no, "I told you so's" or "Well you should have done this," which he would have been more than fair in saying. Just simply encouragement. No dramatic fashion or over extended bits about life. It was exactly what I needed. I just hope when I have a son or daughter that I know to say the right thing in these situations.

I think the most profound thing he said tonight was "Well, you just go to work everyday and you do the best job you can possibly do and at the end of the day it's worth it." Those may not have been the exact words, but something very similar, and it makes sense. We can't spend our lives worrying about things we don't have control over. I don't have 100% control over whether I'll have a photography job when I graduate in May. I most likely won't, but I will still go to whatever job and at the end of the day be proud of the work I've done.

Been Awhile!

I know it's been a long time since any of you heard from me. I'll just give you a quick update on what's been going on. First of all, I had my 23rd birthday last weekend. I went home for it and had a great weekend. Lindsey's part was that Saturday night and Steph and I had a blast. My birthday was the next day and I got to go to dinner with my whole family. It was nice to have everyone there. Steph and I got our engagement photos on Saturday as well. This one is my favorite. We're still going to have some more done, but we needed something for the newspaper and to give friends and family. Thanks to my grandpa for doing these.

This week has been crazy. I started off Monday by working at the newspaper 9:30-6. Then I had to hurry home, change and go to my second job at Pizza Hut. I worked there until 10 pm. Then I did it again on Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday I worked until 11:15 pm. Altogether I figured up by Thursday I had put in 45 and a half hours in by the end of Thursday and I still have to work at least 8.5 hours tonight. It doesn't seem like a huge amount, but when it's split between two jobs it really is a lot more difficult. I'm sure it will pay off in the end. It's helping me get out of debt sooner I guess.

I also officially started my photo essay this week. I met with her last week and snapped a few photos, but I actually went to shoot stuff on Monday. The girl's name is Caitlin Allen and she's from Homer, Ill. Now I thought I worked a lot of hours, but Caitlin is just insane. She works in Truman Hall on campus in the crop sciences labs, goes to class, is involved with a coed fraternity, and goes home nearly every weekend to work on the family farm. The story revolves around Caitlin going home a lot to work on the family farm and eventually trying to take the farm over when her father is done. I have to shoot some stuff for it tomorrow out in Homer so I'm looking forward to that.

I'm going to try and make more of an effort to post on here, but no guarantees. I probably had a little free time last week to do it and I didn't and I could have done something this week if I really tried, but to be honest I was a little down early this week. Just a lot of problems coming crashing in all at once. Most of it all was my fault because of my lack of planning, but there was some other stuff going on too. I find it more difficult to leave Steph after everytime we see each other. I know I should be glad I got to see her, but it just makes me depressed when I think that we still have a ways to go before we live together.

One last thing. I'm going to try and go through the photos from the Will Hoge show last week. I'm sending the photos off to the guy today or tomorrow and I'm going to edit a few of them myself and maybe throw a couple up on here. The band "Backyard Tire Fire" was awesome and seemed to be really nice people. Not to mention the band "Southern Bitch" too. I ended up having a conversation with the bassist Wendy (I think!) for about an hour. Unfortunately I was so annhilated by that point I have no clue what her and I talked about. I got really messed up that night, but will save that story for the blog with the photos.

Firefox Rocks

To the right is what my Firefox screen used to look like. Below is what it now looks like thanks to themes and addons. Click on the photos for a larger view of them.

Making your stand - Opinions

This was an article that I found on the DI while searching for more information about the suspension of the editors. It really has no significance for my blogging except it's the first thing I found and tested after downloading an extension for Firefox today. I stumbled upon FF extensions today while trying to bookmark a page. I absolutely love this one. It's a blog extension. It allows me to quickly bog about something I find on the internet. I also found this one called a Beer O'Clock Extension.
I have yet to download it, but will soon and let you know how well it works. Just another reason for me to shamelessly promote Firefox. I have a feeling my Firefox will never be the same. I'm downloading add-ons and themes like they're going out of style. (And knowing the internet world, they probably are.)

Return from the Great Beyond

I am back. I have been busy the past couple of weeks. Probably not too busy to blog, but busy enough. I'll recap the past two weeks for ya. Work is going good. I finally got to shoot my first NCAA University of Illinois basketball game last week. I was very excited about doing this and the excitement paid off. I got a great shot of Dee Brown and James Augustine celebrating. I couldn't have done as well without the advice of John Dixon. John has been an extreme help. He's probably the best 'teacher' I've had yet. He knows how to cut out the bull and give me the important stuff. Especially when it comes to lighting. I'm over a third the way done with my internship now. Heck, I'm coming up on half way. I definitely don't want this to end.

I also shot IHSA state wrestling championships on Saturday and then did another U of I game on Sunday. Wrestling was fun and so was the game even though I didn't really get anything noteworthy out of either. I have my stuff from wrestling on Sportsshooter. Unfortunately at the U of I game I didn't get the one shot I wanted. At the end of the game James and Dee were walking off the court together after their interview with CBS and I got a shot of them walking arm in arm. I only had my 80-200 available and as I'm walking backwards Dee jumps on Augie's back. perfect moment, unfortunately they were about 2 feet too close for my lens. I got the shot, but it was blurry. We needed a shot for the senior day section this coming weekend. At least I got something for them I guess. My one picture should be on my portfolio soon on Sportsshooter, but I want to make sure it's okay with Darrell that I put it up.

I also won two third places and two honorable mentions for my photos at the ICPA this past weekend. Unfortunately they have not updated the site and no one knows for sure which photos I won for, so as soon as I find out I will post them so you can all revel in my awesomeness. (Or tell me how to do a better job!)

In other news, my birthday is coming up. Anyone wishing to send me money may do so at 305 S. elm st. in Champaign, Ill. 61820. I'm going home this weekend for it. First time I will have spent a birthday with my parents in I can't remember how long. I get back late Sunday and back to the daily grind. I'm starting my photo essay either today or tomorrow. I couldn't get a hold of the girl last night or today, so hopefully I can call her in a bit.

Oh by the way, I'm rocking the Pizza Hut again. Champaign's store is a lot different and I love it. I basically drive the whole time except for about a half hour at the end when I do dishes. It's exactly what I liked about the Charleston one and minus the stuff I hated.

And one last thing to mention was the susepension of The Daily Illini editors. I'm not going to go into a lenghty discussion right now. I'm only going to direct you to my comments on the EIU Hall of Fame Blog. Hopefully I will get the chance later today to blog all my thoughts about this as I feel people should understand a lot of things about this before jumping to conclusions and screaming First Amendment rights.

What the Hell Does This Dream Mean???

Sorry for being so long. I haven't really been doing a whole lot lately except working. I haven't shot anything for my own personal enjoyment for a while either. Luckily I'm going to see Stephanie this weekend so I will probably shoot pictures of her or something this weekend. She got a new dog this week, but it looks like they're going to have to give it away already. His name is Hercules. He's a 1-2 year-old golden lab. Her dad picked him up from outside his friend Bruce's house. He's already snapped at Dana and Stephanie. The vet told them he was just trying to gain dominance over and that they should yell at him. Steph did yell at him and he cowered his tail between his legs. I'll probably get some photos of him this weekend.

I drank for the first time in probably 2 months last night. Obviously didn't take a lot for me to get pretty tanked. I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow. I do have to see I'm pretty wierded out. This is the first time I can ever remember having a reoccuring dream. I've had this dream 4 times in the past 8 or 9 days. I always have a dream about me going out and getting drunk and the next thing I know I'm smoking again. I always say something to the effect of 'oh 1 cigarette won't hurt me.' It's actually got me freaked out. I haven't wanted to drink at all because I'm scared it will actually happen. Who knows, maybe the cigarette is actually representative of something completely different in my dreams. Who knows, maybe it means I'm gay. Wait...that's crabs...if there's crabs in my dreams that means I'm gay. Oh I need to find that dream book Dane Cook talks about.

Other than that, work is going good. I'm starting my photo essay with a student who works on a family farm this next week. The girl's name is Caitlin Allen. I'm excited to actually do this essay. I've never actually done an essay where I took longer than a couple of days to do it. This one should take me about 6 weeks. I'm also getting ready to post my ultimate fantasy league baseball team for 2006. As I tried to explain to Kman earlier, this team is based solely on numbers mostly. I have also been drafting what my personal fantasy team I would like to see in real life. Basically the difference is that in my personal team I would do things like choose Jason Varitek over Victor Martinez for catcher simply because Varitek is known as one of the smartest catchers out there. He analyzes each and every player on the roster. So things like experience count in to this one. It should be posted by Monday or Tuesday.

Superbowl Commercials

I actually did watch the Superbowl tonight, despite my lack of television watching for the past 3 weeks. I was glad to see Pittsburgh win. I don't really have any feelings for either team, but for some reason I just liked the Steelers a little more. I'm just glad football is done so we can all concentrate on the 'real' American sport. Baseball. Only 54 days until opening pitch.

I do have to give a run down on what I thought about the commercials during the game obviously. First of all, here's my top five in no particular order:

1. Hummer Commercial: Giant Monsters
2. Motoral Razor: Paper Boy
3. Sprint: Locker Room
4. Desperate Housewives
5. Budweiser Superfan: Sheep Streaking

If you check out Ifilm you can watch all of them. It's obviously slow tonight and will probably be slow tomorrow because everyone and their mother will be checking it, including me, to play their favorites over and over again and assured they are wore out by the middle of the week and you won't even be able to stand the sight of it when you see it on tv the next week. Luckily for me I don't have network or cable.

Out of all of them I think the Sprint Locker Room one is my favorite. When the guy says his phone has theft deterrent and throws the phone in the other guys face I lost it. And then when he threw it a second time I literally pissed myself. (Just a little something for all you David Cross fans. If you don't understand what I'm talking about, go get David Cross' first cd 'Shut Up You Fuckin' Baby').

I do have to say this was the most disappointing Burger King commercial I have seen in awhile. I'm a big fan of the King. There just wasn't anything funny about the singing commercial. I hate musicals which is probably what prompted me to hate this commercial.

Sprint takes the cake for me for overall best sponsor this year. The other commercial they had where the guys couch catches fire was my number 6 commercial. (Mostly because of the Benny Hill incorporation). Anyone that hung out with me this summer knows that I had an obsession with the Benny Hill theme song.

Although Pepsi's commercials were moderately good, I hate their new "Brown and Bubbly" slogan. The P.Diddy Commercial was okay, but the Jackie Chan one was too cheesy. Well, time for you to give me feedback. Give me your top 5. Or criticize mine. Anything you want to do.

One last thing...I apparently missed a Coca Cola commercial on a bathroom break. The scarecrow one should be in my top 5, moving Sprint's no. 6 to no. 7 and kicking Desperate Housewives to no. 6 and therefore out of the top 5. So to review:

1. Hummer Commercial: Giant Monsters
2. Motoral Razor: Paper Boy
3. Sprint: Locker Room
4. Coca Cola: Scarecrow
   
5. Budweiser Superfan: Sheep Streaking

There's my revised top 5.

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.