Holy shit I won bitches!!!!!!!!! I have soooooooooooooo many things to say about my NaNoWriMo experience but, honestly? I've been writing for the past two hours and I'm kind of over it for tonight.

Floating around in my pool of euphoria,

Some chic you don't know

NaNoWriMo

I'll see you on the other side!

Just a couple more things I've figured out about myself...

A couple things I have learned about my decorating style. 
First, I like wood for wood.   I ran across a project book today on painting wood furniture.  While some of the projects looked "okay", I cringed at the thought of covering up something so beautiful with paint.  I mean, why?!  I love the way wood looks, smells and feels.  How could paint ever hold a candle to the natural grain pattern of wood?! Needless to say I didn't think I could actually go through with any of the projects in the book and therefore my thoughts on the subject were solidified.  I hope to get into old-fashioned woodworking in the not-so-distant future and build the simple furniture I need.  Stay tuned for that!

Second, I like black and white photos...black and white.  Maybe my intro photography class has turned me into a snob but I want black and white photos on my walls, with the correct size WHITE mats housed in BLACK frames.  My mother recently has put some of my black and white photos on my walls using blue frames and computer paper mats and while I am ecstatic to have my art on the wall and I do like the blue frames, the combination of it all is just not setting right with me.  Every day I walk by and remind myself that it must be done up to spec SOON. 

Here's to stained wood furniture and walls covered in correctly displayed black and white photography!

Just finished the movie Mooz-Lum and this song is at the end and I thought it was so beautiful that I had to blog it so that I could save it for later.  Enjoy.

Slide I want to remember...

This slide is from the class I'm currently taking on the history of photography.  The poem is titled Ozymandias by Percy Bysse Shelley and the photo is an albumen print made by Francis Frith of the  fallen statue of Ramses II in Thebes.  We talked about the combination of this poem and photo being a "poignant reminder of the rise and fall of all civilizations". ~Paul Karabinas, UNF
Anyway, I like this "reminder" because it is humbling and I like how it allows me to take a step back and once again align myself with the bigger picture of life--things come and go, things ebb and flow.  Life, to me, equals movement.  I feel that rigid mindsets can be fear inducing and that change, even though hard at times, is full of opportunities for growth and progress.  These changes can range from a career change to the imminent fall of America as a world power.

I love you Carl Rogers :)

So, I am reading Carl Roger's, On Becoming a Person for class and I just wanted to jot down a thought for future inspection.
I now know that there are many different types of psychotherapies out there today.  I think I knew this before but never really thought about it.  Now that I am face to face with it in my readings I have really taken the time to think critically about my three different experiences with therapy and the kind described in this book (client-centered therapy).  I feel much more inclined to this client-centered therapy in comparison with what I have experienced.  I am 1) interested in finding out about other types of psychotherapy 2) interested in seeing if they appeal to me as much as this type does 3) realizing that their is a general lack of communication to the layperson about which type of therapy/therapist they are experiencing 4) going to try to seek out a client-centered therapist when I return to therapy in the future.
If you have experienced therapy or wish to, I suggest checking out this book.  It not only gives insight into therapy from a therapist's view but from a client's view.  It has helped me immensely.

I'm going scaleless!!

That's right...I'm going scaleless for awhile.  Our beloved scale/bodyfat "measurer" has recently died.  It was a great scale and lasted us many years.  Let's have a moment of silence...

Soooo, I have been weighing my options for a new scale for the last two weeks.
-old fashioned mechanical scale (simple, cheap, and I trust it more buuuut hard to see and doesn't give me bodyfat)
-scale/bodyfat combo again (does it all but expensive, none of them really have great reviews and sometimes they are wildly inaccurate depending on time of day and hydration levels)
-go scaleless! (there are various ways of measuring bodyfat which is one part of what I am most concerned with buuuut without knowing my weight I can't know how much lean muscle I have, had or gaining)

Well, I don't feel like spending that much money on a scale right now--because I would rather buy things like blackout curtains for my bedroom (sleepy sigh/yawn)--so I looked to my books.  I am certified as a personal trainer but don't work as one so I sought out my formulas, took my measurements and got calculating.  While this is not an end-all-be-all way of knowing your bodyfat by far, if done consistently I will be able to see gains or losses of fat. Woohoo!  So, my bodyfat as of today is......
Drumroll.......
29.63%
Hard seeing that number when two years ago right before I got pregnant it was at 16% buuuuuuut I had a baby eight months ago and it was about what I expected.  Starting numbers are starting numbers.
What to do from here?? Cardio, strength training, clean eating, and all that jazz.  It will be fun watching that number drop!  What are you doing with your body right now?  Join me on my scaleless journey.

Deep question...

I'm reading On Becoming a Person by Carl Rogers for one of my classes and I came upon a profound question.  Ready?? Are you sure??  Okay, here it comes.

"Am I living in a way which is deeply satisfying to me, and which truly expresses me?"

Take a few minutes to really marinate on that one. I love potentially life changing questions.

Budding photographer...

I know, I know, it's been a long time.  Buuuut, I have a baby, toddler, and husband and they need my attention more than you do so we (that's you and me) have just had to deal.  Moving on...

I'm back in school this semester!!  Woohoo!!  Last year of undergrad!!  Moving on again...

One of the classes I am taking this semester is Black and White Photography.  This is basically the beginner photography class offered at my University.  Let me just say that I have experienced quite a range of emotions due to my work in this class; excitement, wonder, pride, happiness, confusion, enlightenment, envy, disgust, self-loathing, sadness, etc.. 

We are wrapping up our first major project this week in which we have shot, developed negatives, made contact sheets, and our first prints in the darkroom.  Here I will jot down some things I have learned and new questions and goals that I have for the next project.

1. Dust really is the devil.  It is amazing to me how one speck of dust can look like an inch long white scratch on an 8X10 print.  I have seen a couple of dust specks on my lens as well.  Sooooo, I have invested in a lens filter and will be learning to clean my lens from my professor and attaching the lens filter.  Thus, all I have to do is clean the lens filter.  Take that dust!  Now to just keep dust off of my film.  Don't have any answers for that one yet.

2. All of my prints were very grainy compared with a lot of my classmates.  I have ruled out the film speed issue since we are all using the same film. I have concluded that it must either be my focusing technique or I am shaky as hell.  I'm guessing it is a little bit of both.  I have now invested in a small tabletop tripod and will be using the self-timer on my camera for still shots.  I will report back at a later date if this improves my pictures.

3.  I know almost nothing about composition.  I had heard of the rule of thirds and that is all.  I have done a little extra googling and read a couple of articles online so I have a couple of new things I will try for the next project. 

4. Take time.  What I am focusing on and everything else that I can see through that viewfinder have equal importance.  I tend to only really "see" what I am focusing on but when I print out the picture I see all the other ugly shit, or lack of, around it.  Be conscious of EVERYTHING going in to each and every photo and make sure it is what you want to show before you press that shutter.

5. Lighting gives you options.  I shot our first project in my kitchen and cursed myself the whole time I was shooting for not picking something outside.  There was not enough light so I had to bring in a lamp and point it at everything I was taking a picture of.  It was a pain in the ass and now I have realized that most of my prints look washed out because of the blinding light pointed at the subject.  Plus, because I still barely had enough light I as only able to use about two aperture openings and a lower shutter speed.  I didn't really get to try out many different shutter/aperture options.  I will try to shoot out of doors next time.

6.  The dark room is sexy!  However, and this is a big however, it takes FOREVER.  I'm hoping that its only because I am new that it takes me over an hour to make a test print and then eventually (through many trial and errors with filters, exposure time, and aperture) get my final print.  

7.  Black and white pictures will look different than color pictures.  This may seem like an obvious statement but I have realized that I rely on color in my pictures to judge what I think will look good but that just doesn't come through in the black and white pics.  I may really love the colors in a setting but what I REALLY should be looking for is what would give me a broad range of blacks, whites and grays. 


8. I am still fuzzy on depth of field.  I think I am on the edge of grasping how to get what I want with depth of field but I am not there yet.  I think the next chapter covers it though.

9. I am still confused on focusing.  When I am focusing, do I only worry about lining up the two half circles or do I try to focus the textured ring too?  What if what I want to focus on is not in the middle of my frame.  I know dslr's have focus lock?  Where you can choose and lock on to what you want to focus on in the frame.  How would I do this on a manual SLR?

I think that just about covers it for now.  Lots of things to think about and remember for the next project.  Please if you know the answers to any of these questions or can add any helpful comments drop me a line.  It would be much appreciated.

See ya!