College Life

When I woke up Friday morning, I had no idea what was ahead of me. My weekend wasn’t planned and I thought it was going to be another fall-asleep-to-a-movie-at-11:00 p.m. weekend. Little did I know that I was going to become a True Aggie, crowd surf at the dance on the quad, have a mani/pedi/facial night with a gay guy and not get a wink of sleep.

These activities sound pretty typical of a young, college student, especially at Utah State University. My philosophy is that the most memorable weekends are the weekends with nothing really planned. Those are the times when random and exciting things happen that probably wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

First thing, you’ve moved away from home to become independent, right? Then, you’ll probably want to stay away from home as much as possible. Going home too much causes you to miss things going on in the college atmosphere, especially on the weekends. It’s important to feel connected to things, and that happens mostly on the weekends.

Next, immerse yourself in the college environment. One of the biggest mistakes I see is someone “hiding” out in their apartment just waiting to be invited to something. That’s going about things the wrong way. If you’re not having a good time, then it’s probably your fault. It may be uncomfortable to talk to people you don’t know, but that’s how you meet people. The more you meet people, the more comfortable you’ll feel in your new environment.

College is all about having fun, right? The key to that is spontaneity. Be open to anything and be willing to try something new. You might discover something you really like this way. Don’t let judgments stop you from doing anything. An activity your parents might consider to be completely crazy and random could be relatively normal to you.

Take the initiative when it comes to deciding what to do. The most common, and also the most annoying, question is “What do you want to do tonight?” If you want to do a specific activity, round up some people to make it possible. Prevent having the answer to that question be “I don’t know” because that doesn’t get anyone very far.

Small World...

It's amazing how many different (and the same!) people you connect with through blogging. I was on my Mom's blog reading her latest post about Butterfinger Mini Cheesecakes. (looks so-oo good by the way, Mom!)

I was reading the comment on that post and visited the profile of the one commenter. On her profile it showed that she follows a Lynn Shinney Photography. You know me and photography blogs... I'm obsessed with them and follow about fifty. Not even kidding.

So, I click on the link to the photography blog and up pops the wedding announcement of someone living in my building! Small world... cute announcement, very cute couple!

Soil Science

Haha, I just heard from one of my friends that I need a new post. People actually read my blog, I feel so special! This is will be random, but here goes:

I know I've been lacking in posting lately, but I've been too busy reading about the soil degradation issues and devastating economic and political climate of Zimbabwe. Not kidding. Once you get into it, it really is fascinating. The hard part is actually getting into it.

My group just barely gave our presentation on it and we did AWESOME! When the teacher tells your group that your presentation was really, really good, that's a great feeling.

However, keep in mind though that she perks up every time she hears the words soil, erosion, aggregates, degradation and any other word that can be associated with soil.

It's quite entertaining really. During presentations today she broke into a big smile when anyone related what they were talking about to a previous lecture or something we learned in class.

Who would have thought that I would ever take a SOILS class? This particular class was not my choice. It was at the right time of the day and it fulfilled the depth science requirement I needed.

Seeing how fascinated my professor is with this stuff just goes to show that everyone is interested in different things. I look at Ag majors and think, "Why would you ever want to study soil?" But on the other hand, people probably look at me and say, "Why would you ever want to take photographs and write stuff and put it in a newspaper?"

To me, documenting events so others can see what is going on is fascinating. To be able to create something visually informative, such as a news broadcast, from nothing is exciting. Photographing a person, place or thing that seems ordinary is my chance of making it look extraordinary.

These are all really tech-y things that require a lot of preparation and time, but I like it and it's what I'm good at.

This post has no pictures! Let me find some...



photos courtesy of The Hard News Cafe

That's what I'll be doing in the fall... helping produce the ATV News and Cache Valley Rendezvous broadcast programs the broadcast department puts on twice a week. I'm excited!

Historic clock

When I was home this past weekend... my family left me while they went to my brother's track meet. I was all alone and I was bored. So I pulled out my camera and wandered the house.

I remember this clock being very central in our house. My dad brought it back from Holland after he served his mission there some thirty-plus years ago. It has always hung in the same spot, behind my dad's recliner. Sadly, the furniture has been rearranged so it isn't behind the chair anymore.

I remember my dad pulling the chords and hearing the clock and its gears wind up again.

I remember hearing it chime every quarter hour while sitting on my dad's lap watching This Old House and The Joys of Painting with Bob Ross on Saturday mornings.

I remember tapping the chords and watching them swing just a little bit. I don't think I was supposed to touch the clock.

It doesn't chime anymore. I don't remember why or when it stopped, but, I think the chime of the clock left with the physical presence of my dad.

This may be a weird analogy, but since I've always connected that clock with my dad, I will always associate the working clock with the presence of my dad. I think that's why it has never been fixed.

I probably have the story of the clock wrong, I've never asked about it and don't know why. But, that's how I've always interpreted it.

These aren't as good of pictures as I would have liked to get of this clock. They're kind of blurry. I was balancing on the arm of the couch to get high enough to get this close. It was an odd position... I almost fell and caught myself by running into the wall. It scared my dog to death and he started barking uncontrollably. Silly dog!

Shoes

So the shoes I talked about in my last post?

I wore them today. Bad idea.

They're fine other than how they dried. The backs dried odd so they're giving me blisters. I would change them, but I'm on campus til 8 tonight.

Stupid shoes.

That's all.

Look What's Cookin'

The other day, my mom thought it would be a good idea to eat shoes for dinner. Yes, shoes. She even turned the oven on while they were in there.

Just kidding. She didn't think it would be a good idea. It was an honest mistake that she almost caught my shoes on fire.

At my house we have a second oven in our garage we don't use very often. I washed my shoes to make them look a little whiter and newer and my mom said to put them in the (then cold) oven so they could dry in a warm environment because our heater wasn't on.

I forgot they were in there, and I guess my mom had too because when I went out to take the trash out in the garage I smelled some sort of burning. It turned out to be my shoes. My mom started to preheat the oven to cook dinner.

I pulled my steaming shoes out of the oven and looked at the damage. They didn't look too bad except for they were more yellow than white, and the shoelaces started turning brown. A 400 degree oven doesn't do a whole lot of good for a pair of tennis shoes.

I went in to tell my mom and she gasped in horror! I can still see the look on her face and it's still funny to laugh about.

She promised to buy me new shoes. Thanks for making me laugh mom, and at least I get new shoes out of your mistake! :)

Focus, People!

Focusing must come naturally for me as a photographer... When I have the camera in my hands and I press the shutter button halfway down to allow for focusing, I can feel the camera working. It's like the noise a computer makes when it's loading something. When the camera stops "working" I know that it's focused and I can then press the button all the way down and take the picture.

Why don't people understand how to focus pictures?! I get frustrated when I ask someone to take a group picture and then I look at it and it's blurry.

I don't like blurry pictures. Like this:



I think that's a person on a couch... holding a pillow over their head. But I'm not sure.

Hold the button halfway down, let the camera work and then everyone will be happier!

By the way, I'm very picky about my photos if you couldn't tell.

Templates

I hate blogger... it doesn't let me do what I want without getting overly frustrated.

As you've maybe noticed in the past few weeks, the background on my blog has been white for quite some time. I wanted to find a template that was like the "dark dots" template, but one that would allow me to do a header across the top, not just in the sidebar.

I googled my problem and came up with many "blogging experts" that showed step by step instructions on how to do what I wanted. Perfect, right?! No. I did every step, exactly the way it said to, and I still came up with error messages every time I tried to save it.

After spending several hours squinting at the computer screen editing HTML code I hardly know how to read, I found my current background. That's the simplest and darkest one I could find.

I'm still not entirely happy with it, but I'm sick of getting frustrated over it.

Maybe when I'm more of an expert in HTML I can manipulate it with more ease and less frustration.

In one of my classes I'm learning Dreamweaver and I really like it! I'm thinking about investing in the Adobe Suite... just what I need, one more thing to waste my time on and get frustrated over when it doesn't do what I want it to.