Introspection via retrospection.
September 30, 2005 @ 03:35 PM
Even though I haven't been posting (or taking, for that matter) a lot of pictures recently, I still spend a good chunk of time almost every single day browsing through Flickr. I love going through my contacts to see what they've posted, or browsing the 'interesting' photos of the last 24 hours, or surfing randomly from person to person through comment chains. When I come across a photo I find particularly interesting (for whatever reason), I mark it as a favorite and move on. My favorites, then, have started to become a sort of repository for what I consider 'good' photography. In other words, my favorites can serve as a study of my personal aesthetic preferences. The image up top is a collage of my 36 most recent favorites, as of Thursday afternoon (I've added one or two more today). Indulge me in a bit of harmless introspection. :)
Vivid colors seem to be a key factor. Out of the most recent 36, only one is predominantly gray (although even it contains some blue). My eye seems to be attracted to rich colors in general, not specific hues and combinations of hues as I'd previously assumed. For instance, although there is quite a bit of blue pictured, other colors I didn't think I preferred so much are also present. Greens, oranges, and reds are all better represented than I would have expected.
Human figures also comprise a larger number of my favorites than I would have thought. Of course, most of those people are women (go figure), and at least four are even of the same woman (solea, who is also my background at home, and whom I would marry were she to ask). Of the 36 photos, 13 are of people: 9 women, 2 men (well, one man twice (noqontrol)), and 3 children. And one stick figure, which I'm not exactly sure how to classify.
I like macro shots. A good third of the photos I've saved as favorites are close-ups of one sort or another. I also seem strangely attracted to water droplets, as three of the last group feature nothing but. Looking more closely, I think two of them are actually the same leaf in two different colors. I don't think I ever noticed before. :)
Other random observances:
- I have two bird pictures saved. I don't think this means anything.
- Building edges are surprisingly underrepresented, as I consider them an obsession.
- I seem to prefer people and man-made objects to nature. If nature is represented, it's usually the (blue) sky.
- Almost all of the human faces are cut off. I don't seem to be a fan of traditionally framed shots.
- I'm still a big fan of blues. A good 10 of the photos are faves in part because of the blue.
What does all this say about me? I'm not really sure. I suppose these photos represent the sorts of photos I would like to be able to capture myself, although interestingly my own photos generally don't meet many of the presumed criteria. I need to find some women in colorful clothing who will let me take close-ups. :) I bet that's where having a girlfriend would come in handy. Well, that among other reasons.
Baking with Robby
September 28, 2005 @ 03:49 PM
So it's my turn to bring treats to my evening class tonight. As such, 11pm last night found me in my kitchen baking. I discovered pretty quickly that my kitchen is not a good place for one to get one's bake on. I have roughly 1 square foot of counter space (more like 1.5 feet x 8 inches) to work with.
I made chocolate chunk cookies for the first of my two acts (they were my backup treat). These were decently easy because I cheated. Really, Tollhouse and my oven did most the work on that one, though it wasn't as easy as it should have been. I pulled the package of cookies out of the fridge, only to discover I was supposed to open it with a pair of scissors. I couldn't find any, so I just swung a steak knife at it a few times until it decided to open. Then I went to break apart the cookies, but they preferred to break on lines of their own choosing, not the predefined ones, so I ended up mushing most of them back together. Then I had to arrange them on the cookie sheet really, really quickly because the sheet was sitting on my oven range (the only place it'd fit), and the pilot lights burn hot enough to warm pans pretty fast (I'm amazed we haven't started a fire yet). The cookies cooked up decent enough, and I cooled them on top of my pan rack, which has become my makeshift cooling rack.
While the cookies were baking, I started in on product #2: pineapple upside down cake. This one I made on my own, so it was a bit tougher. Once I had my mixing bowl out, there was no more counter space, so the cookbook sat on the dishes drying in the drying rack and I had to get ingredients out one at a time and put them away the moment I was done. I got it all mixed up (the good way) eventually, though, and into the oven it went. Then I discovered there must not be much heat in the center of my oven, as the sides cooked much faster than the center. The center also, because of this, rose higher than the sides, meaning when I turned the cake upside down (or rightside up, I'm not even sure anymore), the cake cracked in a couple of places around the middle. Also, some of my pineapples stuck to the pan a bit, and I had to stick em back on the cake. Then I wrapped the pan in tin foil and stuck the cake in the fridge, where it will sit until I head home to grab it in a few minutes. I'm hoping it'll taste decent enough, cause it sure looks crappy. :p I'll let you know.
Didn't we set record highs a few days ago? We've got a shot at the record low tonight. God bless Iowa.
The photos never taken.
September 21, 2005 @ 04:39 PM
You know what has really amazed me the most since I've started taking photos more regularly (what with the new camera and all)? The number of photos I ~don't~ take. That is, the number of times I see something and think to myself, "wow, that'd make for a fantastic photo" and still do nothing. I envision how I'd frame it, how close I'd want to be, the angle and so on… and then walk away.
I understand in part the reasons behind this. First, there is the problem of time. When I'm out on campus, walking between buildings, I usually see several things I'd like to take a picture of. Unfortunately, if I'm between buildings on campus, that means I'm going somewhere, and I've probably only a few minutes to get there. To stop and take the picture would risk me being late to class. For example, I'm obsessed with Catt hall's exterior, yet I rarely have an excuse to walk to just the places necessary to give me a good, unimpeded view of Catt's spires. It's out of the way. So I don't take the picture.
Sometimes I don't take the picture because I realize my equipment just isn't up to the task. I love my camera, don't get me wrong, but there are some things it is simply not capable of capturing. For example, I love the reflections of the other buildings off the windows of the Parks Library from about 200 yards distant to the south. On a sunny day, you can see most of Beardshear in the library's glass front. However, my camera only has a 3x optical zoom, which isn't enough to capture the windows with sufficient clarity to do the shot justice. Also, without a tripod, the shot would probably come out too blurry even if I did have the zoom. I do not have a steady hand. I even tried moving closer to get the shot within my range, but that changes the reflections entirely. I hope somebody captures the shot someday, but it probably won't be me.
Other times, and probably moreso oftentimes, I don't take the picture because the picture includes People I Don't Know. The thought of walking up to someone and taking their picture when they are Random Person on the Street and I am (presumably) Creepy Guy with a Camera is still far too scary for me to contemplate. I'm sure that's an indication that I am very much an Amateur Photographer. I'm hoping the fear goes away someday, even though I've no delusions of ever being anything more than a Mediocre Photographer. For example (you loving these yet?), I was walking out of the library yesterday and saw two girls sitting on a stone bench, engaged in a friendly, animated conversation. One was dressed in traditional Midwestern garb (plain tee in subdued tones, shorts of a pale color), while the other was dressed in traditional Arabic garb (deep, vibrant colors, nothing but her face uncovered). I thought it'd make a fantastic photo, but I couldn't bring myself to pull my camera out of my pocket and start shooting. Then, after I left the library to head to class, I passed a statue known as Border Crossing (which is a good shot in itself), and somebody was lying propped against the legs of the statue, reading. Again, nice shot; again, I didn't get it.
I'm overcoming this last fear slowly, I think. After all, I did take out my camera in the men's restroom yesterday (pictured above). :) I couldn't stop myself from that one, mostly because I thought of the title of the picture before I took it. And when you've got a title as good as "if i can't whip out my camera in a men's restroom and start snapping pictures, the terrorists have won," you've really gotta take that shot.
Color trumps cleavage? Who knew?
September 17, 2005 @ 04:28 PM
It seems I've yet again let an entire week drift by without updating (thanks for noticing, Debs). The scariest part of that is I didn't really notice the week passing. Apparently these things (such as the passage of time) are able to operate very much on their own, without any contribution of my person. Weird.
Not a whole lot has happened this week, though, aside from the going-to of classes and work, the riding-of the bus between campus and home, and the wading-through the homework. Although I must admit that homework was a lot more fun than it should have been this week. I guess homework is what you make of it. Monday night, Quinn and I put together a handout for our classical rhetoric class, which was a lot of fun to make considering, you know, it was on classical rhetoric and all that. Then, after Wednesday's class, I headed to Café Diem with Rachel, Molly, and Kate, for homework with air quotes. In reality, I only got about twenty pages read in two and a half hours, but considering I was reading for a class this ~coming~ Tuesday, I don't feel too bad about the going being slow.
Thursday night Justin and I decided to go out to the Corner Pocket for beers and pools, which was a pretty good time. I won the first two of six games, and lost the following four. I was pretty bummed about that until I discovered last night that Justin played pool every single weekend in Seattle this summer, and I did not (I wasn't even in Seattle). Ergo, he's all practiced and stuff. Hehe... I just wanted to combine "ergo" and "and stuff" in one sentence.
Last night was also fun, and it also found Justin and I at the Corner Pocket for beers and pools. This time, though, we had the happy addition of Rachel, Molly, et Kate. I again won the first two games (before the ladies showed up), and again sucked it up every game thereafter, to which the picture up top can attest. I believe I was shooting for a striped sphere in the side pocket, missed it horribly, and ended up putting the cue at the edge of the corner pocket, next to one of Justin and Kate's balls (we switched to doubles when the company arrived). Or that story could be impossibly wrong. I really don't remember. I just thought it'd make a good picture.
Speaking of pictures, Sammie and Mandi have finally been replaced as my most-viewed subject matter on Flickr. No offense to the ex-roomies, of course, but it was starting to bug me that the only way I could garner viewers was via pretty brunettes. The picture to replace them? Oddly enough (in my opinion), it's the picture I took of construction paper yesterday at work. I'll admit, it's a cool shot, though I'm personally a bigger fan of the photo of Justin's guitar. Still, you shoulda seen my jaw drop when I opened the box marked "Construction Paper" and saw the rainbow of colors I had to play with. Course, I was looking for a white, and there wasn't a single piece to be found (so I got to make a trip to the copy center), but it was worth the time I spent just the same. I spread the paper out on my desk so I could see all the colors, and almost put it back in the box before I thought to myself that I should at least take a picture. And now, as of this moment, it's had 275 viewers, which is roughly four times the number of viewers any of my other photos have had. :p And 32 people have marked it as a favorite, which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. :) I made people happy with a photo I took. This is how flickr rocks.
And I'm glad I have that to make me happy, because otherwise I'm a little sad today. I'm worried I may have screwed up a friendship or two yesterday. I've been having a bad run as far as friends go recently. I think I've lost more friends than I've made in the last month, which is impressive considering the school year just started, meaning there's thousands of new people on campus to meet and befriend. I'm hoping I wasn't as stupid yesterday as I suspect I might have been, but I'll have to wait a few more hours to find out. Until then, it's pretty much the only thing I can think about.
I almost just titled this post "Look at my balls" after suddenly realizing my pool photo could be seen as mildly suggestive.
Sometimes you wanna go...
September 11, 2005 @ 07:57 PM
I'm happy to report that this weekend was an orgy of fairly irresponsible fun. And you all, I am sure, are equally happy to hear such excellent news.
Friday night the ex- and current-roommates and I all celebrated the 21st birthday of one Paul Ladwig, Justin's brother. I'm pretty sure his birthday was actually earlier in the week, but that didn't slow us down any. We made it to the bar around 7:30, I think, which was good because there were manythousand Hawkeye fans in town for the Iowa - Iowa State game on Saturday, meaning Welch Avenue and its surrounding tributaries were chocked with humans bodies by sunset. Hrm… that sounded gorier than I'd intended. Well, you get the idea.
Anyway, as I was saying. Justin, Paul, Sam, Sammie, Mandi, Elliott, and I spent the evening hanging out primarily at Paddy's. We started out with a few games of pool and a few pitchers of beer (I won two of the three games I played, go me), then sat around in a booth talking, with a few more pitchers of beer. Then we all headed to Sam/Sammie/Mandi/Elliott's place to do more hanging out and more drinking. I quit drinking around 11pm, but still managed to have a good time (I know! Weird, huh?). We got home around 3:45am, after a brief stop at the Burger King drive through. The best part of the night, you ask? Good question! Driving down Lincoln Way in Paul's car, blaring the Cheers theme song as loud as the speakers allowed, singing at the top of my lungs. The people on the sidewalks loved us.
I woke up strangely early Saturday, or 9am as the rest of the world probably called it. I was absolutely unproductive until around noon, when I had a Jimmy John's sandwich (the veritable epitome of productivity). We watched the game on TV (we kicked royal arse, for those not in the know) and yelled appropriate things at appropriate moments. Eventually it was night again, which was cool, because that meant it was time to go out again.
This time the roomies and I went separate ways. Justin, Paul, and Mackenzie headed to SamEtAl's house, and I headed to Welch Ave Station with a bunch of English MA's. That group consisted of (let's see how close I get): Rachel, Molly, Krystal, Scott, Dana, Steph, David, Jordan, Mike, Anja, and myself. That list is roughly in the order I saw people. Anyway, the first of us got to Welch Ave around 8:30, and there was already a line. We got in after only a few minutes waiting, and closed down the place. When we walked out of the bar at 2am, the street was packed. Very packed. It looked like VEISHEA, and the atmosphere felt similar, too. Charged, excited energy everywhere. I sorta wanted to hang around to see if anything was going to happen (you know, since that worked out so well for me last time), but considering my company, that probably wouldn't have been the best idea. So we headed back to my apartment for a brief reprise, and after a bit, everyone went home. I was in bed by 3something.
If anyone's curious to see my visual record of both nights, I've posted pictures on my Flickr feed. Each night has its own set (on the left) for your viewing convenience. I'm really proud of myself… I remembered to take a good dozen pictures on Paul's birthday, and I took two dozen last night. I'm actually ~using~ my digital camera, not just owning it. It's been one of my better purchases in quite a while.
Umm... go Cyclones? The tornado of 2005.
September 08, 2005 @ 05:48 PM
So according to the Channel 8 news a few minutes ago, the National Weather Service has confirmed that a tornado touched down briefly near Agronomy Hall on the ISU campus this afternoon (the news people are having fun with the whole tornado vs. ISU Cyclones thing). To help clarify my position during this event, I've provided the map you see to the right. You can see Agronomy Hall somewhat to the northeast of center. The red dot is where my bus had to stop when the tornado went through. The green dot is my bus stop proper, which we got to a couple of minutes later. The blue dot is where I had to get in the pouring (and I mean pouring) rain.
The sky started to look really nasty a couple of minutes after I boarded the bus at city hall. By the time we got within the campus area, the sky was dark. Very dark. As in, at 12:30pm, the streetlights came on and headlights were an absolute necessity to see further than a foot. I noticed around that time that the sky had turned a very deep green in the north and a blue-black in the south. I snapped this picture on my flickr page out the south window of my bus. The picture doesn't do it much justice, I realize. I think it made the sky brighter, too, to try and accommodate for the dark conditions. I noticed that the wind had picked up dramatically in the last minute or two, and that the wind was blowing in more than one direction. I started paying more attention to the sky.
The rain started a few seconds later, and I pulled my umbrella out of my backpack, suddenly glad I decided to grab it at the last second. Two minutes later, we were in between Agronomy Hall and the Seed Science Building (yeah, we're in Iowa, all right) when the bus driver slammed to a halt. I looked out windshield of the bus to see the fastest blowing wind I've ever seen. I couldn't see more than a few inches past the window through the wind and debris. You could actually see the wind, blowing horizontally across the windshield from south to north (or north to south, not sure which. It was moving too fast). I put my umbrella back.
As I mentioned, the wind was blowing from south to north. The only problem with this is, we had very large buildings to the north and south of us. Wind doesn't blow that way down Osborne Drive. The wind died down dramatically within a few seconds, but everyone sat, stunned, for a bit. Then the bus driver noticed there was a big branch down right in front of the bus. He and a couple of other people jumped out to move it out of the way, and we continued the 100 yards or so to the bus stop. The bus driver announced over the intercom, "for those of you who were on vacation over Labor Day, welcome back to Iowa."
I got off the bus at around the same moment the rain really started in earnest. I took my glasses off and put them in my pocket, figuring they'd do me no good. Then I ran across the street and almost tripped over a tree I didn't see through the rain and darkness, laying across the sidewalk next to Bessey. I put my glasses back on and made my way around the tree. Then the wind raised up again and almost blew me over. I took my sandals off, figuring I could use all the traction I could get. I started jogging to Ross.
Then the rain started. I mean, really started. I couldn't see much of anything beyond the sidewalk at my feet as I jogged towards Ross. The whole trek took me probably a minute or less, but by the time I got to Ross, I was soaked through. About five of my friends were waiting in the entrance when I walked in. They had themselves a good laugh at my appearance, so I took off my glasses and shook some of the rain out of my hair. A few of them stopped laughing.
Then, I get up to the classroom, and a photographer shows up. Turns out they were photographing our class today for some English department grad school marketing materials. Yeah. I stayed out of those pictures.
After class, I snapped a few pictures of the downed trees around campus, which you can see on my flickr page. This is by no means a representation of all the damage around campus. These were just the trees in my way as I walked across central campus from Ross to Pearson. I heard someone say that Pammel Drive, one block north of Osborne, looked like a lumber yard.
By the by, for those of you who caught the Channel 8 newscast at 5pm, you can see my apartment in the background.
Bare of Necessities
September 07, 2005 @ 09:18 PM
It's sad when you realize you've become a lurker on your own blog. I visit my site pretty nearly every day, and strangely enough I do it for the same reason I assume you-all visit (assuming this isn't your first time, and if it is, welcome!): I'm looking for something new and interesting. I have no idea why I think I'll find it on my own, neglected blog (and I'm sure you-all are beginning to think the exact same thing, no?). I think I'm probably looking for feedback. Comments, you know. People other than myself to entertain me. Because so far this semester I'm really too busy to entertain myself, and as a result, I don't get a chance to post much. That and I've never hit the hardcore-blogger level, where blogging becomes so habitual that to miss a day of writing online would be like going an entire day without peeing. With this girlish bladder, unlikely :)
Anyway, this post is serving as a sufficient diversion from that which I must actually get done: a short visual analysis of a technical document for my class tomorrow. My goal is to get the assignment done at some point tonight, then sleep for a bit, then wake up early to absorb (or more realistically skim) the reading for class. After class tomorrow, though, my week is essentially over. Which is good, because I'm way behind on laundry (I'm wearing Loony Tunes boxers), I'm out of food (canned peaches are a meal, right?), and I really desperately need to go to Target (see below).
It's actually kinda interesting how these 'necessities' can be put aside when homework becomes life. My last highlighter ran out of—umm, highlight?—last weekend. It is very hard for me to critically read 150 pages of classical rhetoric and critiques of classical rhetoric without an operable highlighter in my hand. I ended up having to borrow Justin's backup highlighter to do my reading for this week (luckily, Justin's still enough of a nerd to have such things). We were also, until Justin made a run to the store tonight while I was in class, out of paper towels. A couple of days ago I tried to degrease chicken nuggets with two pieces of printer paper (not as effective as one would hope, by the by). The lightbulbs in my bedroom burned out over the weekend, and I have no replacements. Luckily, I only seem to use the room for sleep, and I tend to do that better without illumination anyway, but still. It's the principle of the matter.
Weather, Gas, Grandparents, Blondes, and Jack Handy.
September 01, 2005 @ 03:16 PM
It's an absolutely gorgeous day outside, as I can attest to from the full ten to twelve minutes I've spent between buildings. It's in the low eighties, with a slight breeze, and there isn't a cloud in the sky. I suppose we have Katrina to thank for that, seeing as how she's managed to hold up every other weather front in the nation with her slow trek northeast, leaving Iowa on a nice meteorological plateau between lows. I'm hoping to get outside a bit after work, and it still should be nice at that point. However, since I generally detest public places when I am alone (something about seeing all the groups I am not a part of), the great outdoors will probably be limited to my roof this evening.
I hear that this weekend should be spectacular weather-wise as well, and I also have Katrina to thank for the fact that I probably won't be going anywhere to enjoy it. My car has just under a quarter tank of gas, which under normal driving conditions should last me a couple of weeks, but certainly won't get me to Des Moines and back to see my parents. I meant to fill it up when I went out to dinner with oldFriend Natasha Tuesday night when gas was an annoying $2.50 per gallon, but forgot. Today gas is a bit over $3 per gallon in Ames. I think I'll stick to the bus as much as possible for a while.
I saw my grandparents on the news last night (I forget which channel, but it was probably KCCI), being interviewed at the pump. Actually, I recognized their van first. My conversation with Justin went something thusly:
Justin: Really?
Me: Yeah. Hey, there they are again. My grandma Vi and grandpa Dave.
Justin: Grandpa Steve?
Me: Dave.
Justin: The screen says Steve Stowers.
Me: Yeah. He and the interviewer probably couldn't understand each other. That happens a lot.
Justin: Maybe he's operating under an alias.
…
Me: Hey! Why are they filling up the van? Where are they going without me?!
Caught in the act, they were, preparing for a Labor Day vacation without their dear, favorite grandson. For shame! :) Not that I probably would have been able to go, regardless. It's only the second week of classes and I'm already falling behind in my reading. Tuesday I read classical Greek rhetoric for a good seven hours. For those who forget such things, though I am admittedly in a rhetoric-based program, classical rhetoric is Not My Bag. Though I must say, I'm really starting to enjoy reading (for example) Plato, when the alternative is some highfalutin critic pontificating away on Plato. I'm really becoming sick of the academic literary formula, "Of course, <insert proper nouns, theories, and archaic language I've never before encountered here>." Oh, well… of course! Any idiot would know that!
I'm finding myself oddly attracted to blondes of late. I've never really been attracted to blondes, in general, before. I think this might have something to do with there being a dearth of brunettes in my immediate surroundings. "You can't feed the dolphins drumsticks... they only eat fish!" Well, of course that's all they eat, if that's all you feed them. :)