To say that I've neglected this blog for the last couple of months while lavishing all the attention on my photography website is quite the understatement. And while I can't exactly promise that I'll change my ways, I can guide you to some hilariousness in the form of my brother Jared. He's kind of crazy and awesome and weird all rolled up into a kitty loving little kid. And here is his new blog.
There's this cool place a couple of neighborhoods over that I like to take Bear for walks. It's basically a swamp with a boardwalk over it and there are all kinds of birds and plants living in it. He loves it because it has so many different smells and his nose goes crazy. Anyway, I took him there last week and he decided he was thirsty. For swamp water. Being the genius he is, he decided to lean over the edge of the boardwalk, even though it's at least a foot above the watery muck. And then he fell in and was stuck trying to get out again. It's too bad no one was around to witness the hilarity that ensued with me trying to pull him out and him straining his little legs to free himself. Finally he came out and he was elated. Doesn't he look proud of himself?
And a close-up of the nastiness:
He smelled so bad afterwards that we had to give him two baths to completely rid him of the stench.
Ps- Do you see that green spot on his forehead in the first pic? That's a grass stain. I have an awesome dog :)
I have one question for you Mr. President:
WHERE IS THE PUPPY?
Honestly, I think your cute little girls (and myself) have waited long enough already. Only one thing will cure my depression from all the terrible news of people getting laid off, soldiers dying, and financial meltdowns. And that is... PUPPY MANIA.
I've finally worked out the kinks in my new photography website. The pictures are big and you can actually see detail! From now on I'll be posting most of my photographs over there, so subscribe to the RSS feed or add me to your blogroll (or both!). The first few photos from my shoe diptych series are posted so head on over and take a look.
1) Kara wore some metallic monstrosity of a dress. I really don't understand how her and Paula can critique those girls on their fashion tastes. Seriously? Look in the mirrors ladies. Actually, that goes for Simon and Randy too.
2) I still think that Michael Sarver has to be one of the nicest guys ever. Still, his performance was not great; I think he might be the one to bite the dust this week. Simon said: "On a scale of 1-10 you were a 1.2" and Michael countered with: "At least it wasn't a zero." I don't think he understood the scale.
3) Allison rocked out like she's been doing every week even though the band's arrangement was terrible. Man I love that girl.
4) Danny Gokey wore a lab coat with safety goggles during his performance. It was a good thing too because it was messy up there.
5) Kris, the one who's been casted as the heartthrob, has been steadily improving each week. Along with being adorable he sang really well. And Randy called him a "tender dawg." What the hell is a tender dawg?? Can we vote Randy off? Please? Please? And he can take Kara with him?
6) I wanted to make out with Simon when he called Adam's sickening performance of Ring of Fire "indulgent rubbish."
7) By the end of the season, Alexis will probably have a good case for a sexual harassment suit against Kara. Dear Kara: you are seriously creepy with all of your overtly sexualized comments toward that girl.
8) Two too many people covered Martina McBride.
9) Backstage, Randy calls Simon the lil' judge.
10) Anoop came back from last week's giant misstep to have the best performance of the night.
I'm starting to really hate how badly rendered my photos are on here. Click and look at it large. Anyway, I wasn't planning on posting my newest photos until I had my new website up and running, but it's turning into a harder task than I thought it would be so I changed my mind. This is kind of an outtake from the series of photos I'm editing right now, but I really liked it, so I kept it. Don't you just love the peeling paint on the left side? I do :)
Don't you hate it when you hear people talking about an interesting topic and you want to jump into it, but you don't know them and that'd just be weird. I do. Anyway, these people were talking about how books are always better than the movie and I wanted to jump in and say that every once in a while a movie is better than the book. Not often, but sometimes. For me that movie is Sense and Sensibility. Emma Thomson's screenplay is flawless, beautiful, and true to the Austen spirit. Are there any movies you think are better than it's literary counterpart?
I've been trolling youtube lately for cool ideas and techniques for stop motion. I came across this music video and was totally blown away. It's a little daunting to see how good this is; The part with the dancing is especially beautiful.
It's been a little over two months of my 365 project already. Crazy. A picture each day has been a fun and challenging activity, as well as an educational one. I've learned that the best shots usually take planning and time to get them exactly how I want them. When I started the 365 project I had a sense of it being a kind of visual journal for my life, but now I find myself wanting to focus less on what's in my daily life and more on thinking up fun and beautiful images outside of my daily life. So I'm going to be changing things up a little in the near future. The result being that I'll no longer be shooting a photo a day; Instead it'll be more like a set of photos per week. I'm (slowly) working on a new and shinier blog that will be more conducive to photography and already thinking up bigger photo projects (and movie projects!). If all goes well weather wise, the first of these projects will be happening on Saturday.
My sister's birthday was a couple days ago and my brother and I made this stop motion video as a present. It was my first foray into stop motion so it's not perfect, but I think it's still pretty cool. It was a lot of fun to make so I'm planning on doing another one soon :)
I've posted a few pictures of her, but I don't think I've properly introduced you to our cat Sweety (aka Fluffer, Fluffernutter, All Fluff No Brains, Stinky, Stinkerbell, and Stinkerella). She's quite the daredevil kitty. A mixture of curiosity and stupidity makes for a wildly cute monster. Her favorite activities are drinking out of the toilet, antagonizing our dog until he chases her, trying to figure out what kind of creature my printer is, and exploring. We love this little ball of fluff.
We had a MASSIVE amount of snow a couple of days ago. I'm pretty sure everyone around here is ready for winter to be over except Baerli. He can't can't get enough of it.
I'm feeling much better today, thank goodness. This was taken in a parking garage in Minneapolis. 
The website for the movie Coraline has a cool feature that lets you upload a picture and put different buttons over the eyes. This is what I ended up with. Creepy!
I learned a new technique in photoshop yesterday that I tried out on this photo. I've always liked this shot, but could never really get it to where I wanted it. The changes are not crazy, but noticable when compared to the original.
Sweet little baby kitty with not much going on upstairs. I think I'm going to start posting my photos with a black background. What do you think?
I just took a quiz the New York Times has that tests your presidential health knowledge. I failed it (2/8) because apparently I know nothing about the health of past presidents and I'm pretty sure that wasn't really covered in my American history classes. Anyway, the question that really threw me was one that included a question about Jed Bartlet. And I was like, what the hell? Who is Jed Bartlet? How come I've never even heard about one of our presidents? I am so stupid! I thought I knew a decent amount about politics and the presidents (aside from their health apparently), but clearly I know nothing. There are forgettable presidents like Millard Fillmore and Chester Arthur but at least I've heard of them! And then I googled Jed Bartlet and saw that he was a TV president and I didn't feel so bad anymore.
This wasn't taken over the weekend, obviously. I've been going through all my negatives and scanning them into the computer. Unfortunately, I have quite a few negatives and it's taking forever. I ran across this one and liked it so much I thought I'd post it; it's from my time living in Hawaii.
Uh, I hope you're not on a diet and are hungry for cupcakes now. I don't know if any of you watch 30 Rock, but I watched it this week and I've been craving a McFlurry since Thursday.
One of my favorite place in the Twin Cities is the Como Park Conservatory. It's freezing and wintery outside but when you walk in, it's like you've stepped into Hawaii. It's warm and humid and smells like flowers. This flower shot was taken there.
Lizzie and I went to a roller derby in Minneapolis. We were expecting a bit of violence and great people watching (which we got) but we weren't expecting to enjoy the actual sport so much. It was entertaining to watch and those gals are tough! Anyway, here's one of the pics from it.
To get their boats moving, they do a sort of running, bobsled sort of start and then jump in.
I finally got around to editing the actual sailing pictures from the winter carnival. You should look up videos of this sport, it's pretty crazy when they get these "boats" going fast.
I like to play a game called "I found your boyfriend" with family and friends. Since we're all friends too, I thought I'd extend this game to the internet. Dear internet, I found your boyfriend. Enjoy!
At the winter carnival Lizzie decided to build herself a boyfriend. Isn't he lovely and featureless?
Let me introduce to you my sister's boyfriend Jon. Isn't he adorable? Our weekend Winter Carnival outing included a trip to the famous Mickey's Diner in downtown St. Paul. Have you seen the movie A Prairie Home Companion? This is the same diner that they filmed that end scene in. If you ever come to the twin cities, you must stop by and get a banana shake. So good!
The first month of my 365 project is done so I decided to put them together so I could see them all side by side.
Along with the ice sailing at the Winter Carnival, the sky was filled with kites. Click to see it larger, it doesn't render very well so small.
If you've been reading this blog for a while or know me in person, you know that I'm a big people watching person. My sister and I try to take every opportunity we get to find interesting people to look at. This past weekend we went to the Ice Sailing event for the Winter Carnival in St. Paul. I took some pictures of the actual sailboats and ice sailors, but also documented some of our favorite people at the event.
This couple was by far the weirdest we saw. They were talking very loudly on their cell phones about calling police and going to jail and lawsuits.
We saw these fantastic matching snowsuits. Aren't they lovely? My sister and I are planning on finding the adult versions.
Last Saturday, the Twin Cities saw a temperature above freezing for the first time in a month! On Friday everyone was talking about the possibility of mid-thirty numbers and everyone was very excited. Including a favorite radio dj of my sister and I. I'm not really sure how this dj got such a cushy job (she works for The Current, the awesome rock counterpart to MPR, and she's on in the afternoons when everyone is listening to the radio) because she's always saying really awkward things. Friday saw a new high in awkwardness though. She was talking about the weather and her plans for the weekend when she said, "It might even be warm enough to urinate outside tomorrow." Crickets.... It was silent for a few seconds before she added, "For my dog." I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes.
My father's fiftieth(!) birthday. This cake looks a little silly, but man it was good. Homemade carrot cake with perfect frosting.
Had some fun playing with long exposures and light painting over the weekend. It was so cold! We nearly froze to death with the negative temperatures. Is winter almost over yet?
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