Have you heard Flyleaf's album, Memento Mori? If so, have you read the insert that comes with the cd? If not, i can't even tell you how much i recommend it. It's SO amazing. I think you'd love it.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Thursday, December 30, 2010
See?
Photos of one camera, taken with the other.
The thing on the front, to the right of where it says "PLC2," is the shutter button.
The thing on the front, to the right of where it says "PLC2," is the shutter button.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Winter and its hateful sensory experiences
I hate winter. Some people apparently enjoy the sights and sounds and smells and tastes, but i find the most prominent ones terrible. Seriously, you like being cold?! It's ridiculous. So, in the spirit of Christmas being over and having no fun plans until Friday, i'm going to write about all the things i hate about this season.
1. Cold. I hate shivering, numbness, and barely being able to force myself out from under the covers every morning. Most people seem to prefer it to heat, but i wholeheartedly disagree. I'd much rather sweat and then have to take a nice, relaxing shower to be clean than freeze and have no such relief to look forward to. Bundling up doesn't help. Even if clothes weren't made such that even if your armpits are sweating like crazy and your arms don't have goosebumps, your legs are frozen and you can't feel your hands, feet, or face, how can you be stuffed into so much fabric and padding you can barely move? Doesn't that defeat the purpose, somehow?
Another thing... until last week, my house had no central heating. So, on a few mornings, i got out of bed into 48-degree air. Fun.
2. Dryness. Even if you keeps putting on more and more Chapstick, it invariably wears off in minutes. No matter how much i moisturize my face, my skin flakes off like the Horde. And my arms and legs are ashy all over. I have to rub my icy hands all over them with lotion to help it... and that's not fun.
3. That smoky smell. Outside in my neighborhood, it smells like wood smoke. It's not even nearby enough to see where it comes from, but it burns my sinuses and gives me a headache. I like fire, but i hate any kind of smoke. That's another reason i'll never smoke pot. "It intensifies sensory experiences..." Yeah, like the sensation of being STABBED IN THE FACE WITH A BURNING STAKE.
4. Static electricity. Aside from making your hair look stupid and stick to your face and everything, it causes everything you touch to electrocute you. Everything. Other people, plastic slides, metal chairs and doorknobs and all kinds of crap that initially looks harmless are now light sockets. It gets really annoying.
I can't think of anything else that's sucky and totally specific to winter, right now... but i think all of the above is plenty. Least favorite season, most definitely.
1. Cold. I hate shivering, numbness, and barely being able to force myself out from under the covers every morning. Most people seem to prefer it to heat, but i wholeheartedly disagree. I'd much rather sweat and then have to take a nice, relaxing shower to be clean than freeze and have no such relief to look forward to. Bundling up doesn't help. Even if clothes weren't made such that even if your armpits are sweating like crazy and your arms don't have goosebumps, your legs are frozen and you can't feel your hands, feet, or face, how can you be stuffed into so much fabric and padding you can barely move? Doesn't that defeat the purpose, somehow?
Another thing... until last week, my house had no central heating. So, on a few mornings, i got out of bed into 48-degree air. Fun.
2. Dryness. Even if you keeps putting on more and more Chapstick, it invariably wears off in minutes. No matter how much i moisturize my face, my skin flakes off like the Horde. And my arms and legs are ashy all over. I have to rub my icy hands all over them with lotion to help it... and that's not fun.
3. That smoky smell. Outside in my neighborhood, it smells like wood smoke. It's not even nearby enough to see where it comes from, but it burns my sinuses and gives me a headache. I like fire, but i hate any kind of smoke. That's another reason i'll never smoke pot. "It intensifies sensory experiences..." Yeah, like the sensation of being STABBED IN THE FACE WITH A BURNING STAKE.
4. Static electricity. Aside from making your hair look stupid and stick to your face and everything, it causes everything you touch to electrocute you. Everything. Other people, plastic slides, metal chairs and doorknobs and all kinds of crap that initially looks harmless are now light sockets. It gets really annoying.
I can't think of anything else that's sucky and totally specific to winter, right now... but i think all of the above is plenty. Least favorite season, most definitely.
I has a camera, by the way.
Still not a digital one that's really good for photography, but... actually, two cameras, nonetheless. My uncle gave me an older digital one a few days ago, which is cool. And months ago... I should have talked about it then, but i forgot about blogging for a long time... a friend of my grandpa's gave me this awesome, 40-year-old Praktica that cost a few hundred dollars in 1968. (Which is to say, it's a pretty great camera.) Obviously it uses film, so it'll be a lot of trouble to get pictures that i take with it online or anything, but still. He also gave me a bunch of accessories, including several lenses. It's awesome. You have to buy film, but so far people have given me that, and i have six rolls right now. So, yeah. Look forward to me having fun with it.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
School! School! Public high school!
So, two weeks ago i started going to Forks, i mean, North Marion High School. And despite what i've heard from most people who've never been there about it being a bad place, i'm not seeing that at all. It's pretty much great--It's not a very big school, so there aren't quite as many academic options and whatnot as at some, but it's still good as far as learning goes. And then the people--I'd expected it to be full of stoners and delinquents and rednecks, but it's really not. There are some stoners and kids who've been in trouble, but they're all pretty nice. I've only seen one person who wasn't--this sort of stuck-up girl... and that was just for a couple of minutes at lunch. I'm actually making a lot more friends than i expected, and i haven't had to try to be outgoing at all. And i'm pretty sure several guys like me as a girl... even though that won't work, it's nice.
I ride the bus, which isn't bad. The people at my bus stop are fun, and one's my next door neighbor who hangs out with my family a lot. On Monday we had a substitute driver, and he arrived at the stops fifteen minutes early... I was one of the less than half who made it on, but then only by getting driven to another stop after the bus passed by my house. :P
My first period class is Intensive Math, just because i need another math credit or something, and also haven't taken the FCAT yet (it's mostly for people who failed that and have to retake). It's as insanely easy as you'd expect, but i don't mind it, and the teacher sees me as kind of a superstar, i think. Haha.
Then i have Math for College Readiness... This one is for people who failed the algebra segment of the CPT, which i did, so i do need to be in it. It isn't hard, though, and i'm friends with the girl who sits next to me in it.
Then is Guided Work Learning, where basically students assist in school offices or classes for the period. I work in the Book Depository, which is a little boring, but still, not bad, and my partner's another friend.
I have A lunch, which is at the beginning of fourth period, and not bad since now i have a friend to eat with and my family's been approved for reduced lunch, so i can stop bringing it like a loser.
After lunch i have Psychology, which is a really cool class. What we learn is interesting to me, and the teacher is one of those cool teachers... Fourth period is ten minutes longer for us than any other period, so my class ends up watching Youtube videos projected on the smartboard at the end, which is fun. They're usually hilarious. :P
Music Appreciation is next. I like it... For a little while it was my least favorite class, because we were learning drum techniques, which i suck at, badly. I'm not coordinated at all, and i'm sensitive to looking like an idiot. :P But now we're actually learning things about different kinds of music, which is cool.
For sixth period i'm in the Plato lab, which is where students make up credits from failed classes (usually) online, and i'm doing English III, which i just didn't end up taking last year. I enjoy it; i actually learn well on the computer, plus there's a pretest for each unit of the class by which you can be exempted from sections you already know or have learned... I finished my first semester's work of it in 3 hours of total elapsed working time. And again, i like what i am learning.
And finally is English class, possibly my favorite. I'm not good at organizing my thoughts and writing, but we haven't had to do that a lot yet; we're reading Beowulf. And i like reading almost any story. I'm a nerd like that. And i kind of like being a nerd. So i'm liking the class, and i sit next to some awesome people that i like a lot. It's fun.
All of this may be a lot more than anyone cares to know about what i think about public school, but i still wanted to say it all, so that's too bad. This is what it's like from the perspective of someone who was homeschooled up until her senior year: quite good.
I ride the bus, which isn't bad. The people at my bus stop are fun, and one's my next door neighbor who hangs out with my family a lot. On Monday we had a substitute driver, and he arrived at the stops fifteen minutes early... I was one of the less than half who made it on, but then only by getting driven to another stop after the bus passed by my house. :P
My first period class is Intensive Math, just because i need another math credit or something, and also haven't taken the FCAT yet (it's mostly for people who failed that and have to retake). It's as insanely easy as you'd expect, but i don't mind it, and the teacher sees me as kind of a superstar, i think. Haha.
Then i have Math for College Readiness... This one is for people who failed the algebra segment of the CPT, which i did, so i do need to be in it. It isn't hard, though, and i'm friends with the girl who sits next to me in it.
Then is Guided Work Learning, where basically students assist in school offices or classes for the period. I work in the Book Depository, which is a little boring, but still, not bad, and my partner's another friend.
I have A lunch, which is at the beginning of fourth period, and not bad since now i have a friend to eat with and my family's been approved for reduced lunch, so i can stop bringing it like a loser.
After lunch i have Psychology, which is a really cool class. What we learn is interesting to me, and the teacher is one of those cool teachers... Fourth period is ten minutes longer for us than any other period, so my class ends up watching Youtube videos projected on the smartboard at the end, which is fun. They're usually hilarious. :P
Music Appreciation is next. I like it... For a little while it was my least favorite class, because we were learning drum techniques, which i suck at, badly. I'm not coordinated at all, and i'm sensitive to looking like an idiot. :P But now we're actually learning things about different kinds of music, which is cool.
For sixth period i'm in the Plato lab, which is where students make up credits from failed classes (usually) online, and i'm doing English III, which i just didn't end up taking last year. I enjoy it; i actually learn well on the computer, plus there's a pretest for each unit of the class by which you can be exempted from sections you already know or have learned... I finished my first semester's work of it in 3 hours of total elapsed working time. And again, i like what i am learning.
And finally is English class, possibly my favorite. I'm not good at organizing my thoughts and writing, but we haven't had to do that a lot yet; we're reading Beowulf. And i like reading almost any story. I'm a nerd like that. And i kind of like being a nerd. So i'm liking the class, and i sit next to some awesome people that i like a lot. It's fun.
All of this may be a lot more than anyone cares to know about what i think about public school, but i still wanted to say it all, so that's too bad. This is what it's like from the perspective of someone who was homeschooled up until her senior year: quite good.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
David duChemin, the Ted Dekker of photography?
So, i'd rather just let this guy and his book(s) speak for themselves than explain. I checked out "Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision" from the library... and it's the best photography book i've ever seen; the one i've been looking for for years and never known it, etc... If you read it and understand, well, then you'll understand.
Here's his site.
Speaking of photography and stuff... I like it. I'm thinking about making a photography blog, either out of this one or a separate blog. But i can't right now... because my camera is broken. I don't think it'll get fixed, but i should be getting a new one around my birthday in January. So, then if not before, someone (Jimmy) should remind me of this.
Big things
Since... Whenever i posted last, i can't even remember when it was, i've gotten busy and out of the habit of occasionally posting on this blog. I guess i don't post a whole lot about my real-life life here (especially not big things), but here's a bunch of things that have been going on.
- Back in May, my mom left for a while. As in leaving my family... She came back after a few weeks, but that was a weird, upsetting, stressful period of time. Any more detail would be too a long a story and too much information about other people to post publicly on the internet besides. But anyway, that was a big deal.
- In June, i spent a week at camp in the mountains in Tennessee with my youth group, which was amazingly awesome. And... again, more detail would be too much for me to post tonight. It's three hours later in my time zone than the times Blogger puts on my posts (I don't know how to change that), and i have to go to bed before breakfast time tomorrow.
- Later in June, i spent a week in my hometown that i moved from in eigth grade, which was also awesome. I got to do fun things with my grandma and cousins and great aunts, et cetera, and i also saw a couple of old friends. I only spent a little time with them, but it wasn't disappointing at all. :)
- Just last week, i went with my youth group on a mission trip to Jacksonville Beach and did a VBS for the kids at an apartment complex. Another long story that i probably won't get around to telling... but oh, well. There will be others.
- And... Since the stuff with my mom, my family's not homeschooling anymore. My younger siblings are all going to public school this coming year, and i most likely am too. I was going to still be officially homeschooled and dual enroll, but i didn't pass the algebra portion of the CPT in time to do it in the fall semester. I may still start dual-enrollment in the spring, but anyway, i plan to go to North Marion next month... and i need to get around to actually enrolling, ha.
So, life's been busy and won't be getting less so anytime soon, but i do plan to start posting more again. So take heart, imaginary blogreaders! I've returned.
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