eclypseArt

Yeah, so the big 45 foot tall oak in our front yard fell down today.  I was engrossed in editing pictures, and I felt this big thud rock the house.  I looked outside, no joke, to see if smoke was rolling across the ground, or if there was some kind of big cloud like you see in the movies or something, and thought, "eh, nothing", and went back to my work.  Like 10 minutes later my Mom called to me with a great deal of concern in her voice to come, I thought she had fallen or something.  Well, no she hadn't fallen, but something else had.  We go outside and like half of the tree was all laid out across the neighbor's yard, and our yard, and like on top of one of their trees (poor thing didn't stand a chance, just a baby). And the creaking sound kind of gave us a hint as to what would happen next.  Out of balance by it's other half having come down, the bigger part of the tree came crashing down with an earth-shaking, well, crash.  So that part of the fence was, rather, dead as well now too.  

Moral of the story:  Always take pictures when you feel inspired to do so.  

So like, there were these cute little mushrooms blooming out in the yard yesterday, adorable little things, and I was like, oh I want to take portraits of the mushrooms!  Maybe photoshop some pixies in or something!  (Yeah, it went through my mind, k?)  Then I promptly remember that I take myself more seriously then that, and I just appreciated their symmetry and the coloring.  So like, today the tree didn't "exactly" flatten them, but all the crazy wind and debris from them totally killed them.  I was glad I had taken pictures when I did.  

We watched Coraline tonight too.  Very cute little movie.  Talked a little afterwards.  It was just a good movie to watch, we decided.  Too often movies have the same storyline and plotline, and if you can predict at the beginning of the movie what is going to happen, or who the bad guy is, i.e. Scooby Doo-style, then honestly it ain't worth watching for its merits, IMO.  Yeah I'll watch them like everyone else, if for nothing else but entertainment.  But really, too often movies are violent, absurd, etc.  Everything but telling a story.  My hat off to Henry Selick for writing a fantastic screenplay.  

Christina's pictures have again taken a back seat tonight to my other endeavors.  Sorry.

Gosh I hate editing photos.  Maybe that says something about my workflow, and about my future.  But spending hours on tagging, cropping, editing, and loading and reloading pictures on this computer just drains the creativity out of me.  Any ideas anyone?  

So today was my last test that I have to take (fingers are crossed, even as I write this.) for a job tutoring.  I took the algebra test, no sweat, but then they handed me this chemistry final that the poor high schoolers have to take at the end of each term, and I had 45 minutes to take the thing.  Sweating, I opened it and only took 12 minutes!  Hooray!  I say that only because that was as fast as I could get through it, skimming over the questions and circling the answers I though looked the most evil, in a way that appeared to have been my truly best guess, even though it was just that:  a guess.  The secretary must have noticed because she handed me a spanish test, and said that they may be able to hire me for that instead.  I mean hey, at least I didn't get lost this time driving there.

Friends from high school are so great!  I got together tonight with my old friend, Christina.  Really one of the most beautiful people I know, and she and I just went to town with the portraits.  She had a natural grace and style in front of the camera and worked so well.  I won't have any problem getting my 10% from this shoot.  All in all I fired off 600 shots, with about 9 or 10 poses in like 3 locations.  It was a good shoot.  

I got so lost this morning.  (Curse you mapquest!!!)  Trying to get to a job interview I got turned around like 37 times, and took a huge long round trip to get home, and in the end I took a 3 hour  trip to get a toothbrush and 4 rolls of film for my new Pentax.  Grr.  I mean I didn't even have time to stop by the thrift store in Tampa I saw, and when i could go back I could find the dumb place.  

So anyways, listening to the Thunderbolt Kid in the car today, driving over 150 miles in one day, when you aren't even on a roadtrip to somewhere interesting but rather pulling a P-Chan in directional ability:  I was able to listen to the first few chapters.  There is something about the English voice that is soothing and calming and has the potential to be amazingly funny when telling a joke about anything from the size of clothing your mother wears, the odor that clings to your father, or how to integrate a sphere.  Really the book is funny, very funny.  It's oddly reminiscent of childhood like nothing else I have ever read.  Maybe my earlier years were more normal than I ever gave them credit for.  Really I think more often than not, we worry so much about being normal and non-unique, than we should.  

Back to my friend:  She's a doll, and being a little bit more aware about what it's liek to be twitterpated, or being the twitterpater, I'd say she likes me.  It probably won't develop into anything, like we commented over texts tonight, we our manners to believe in God vary greatly, and although the ends are the same, the means are completely different.  Which seems to make a big difference.  Go talk to Machiavelli about that one.  

So lesson learned:  Pretty girls, are still just pretty girls.

Really I have a ton of stuff that is long term that I am trying to get a handle on.  Trying to get signed up for this math class I need has proven to be a battle, my 365 selfie thing got underway tonight, plus a portfolio that I can actually be proud of.  It's taking its toll, really.

So tonight, tonight.  It's been a good day.  It was nice to be with the family today and to go to church here with all the other singles.  We have a little branch(congregation) here in Palm Harbor, and I'll be going there while I'm at home.  It's a little bit of a drive, but it is nice to be around friends.  Yesterday was eventful too.  Grr to all the random streets I've never been on before.  Grr, indeed.  I was running errands all yesterday for my mom, I mean I offered to help her out and everything, it's just the whole getting lost part didn't help.  I spent just as much time getting lost as I did in the stores I went to, that ever happen to you?  At the thrift store I was checking out and I saw in the back they had a bunch of old 35mm cameras, little point and shoots y'know.  And I asked to see some of the bags, and lo and behold a fully functioning Pentax 35mm SLR.  So i got it.  It came with a 70-205, a 28mm prime and 50mm 1.4 as well.  I was tickled pink~  

I got so lost.  Trying to drive around with that useless map, and not having anyone to call for help, I started looking at my own attitude and reactions to it all and realized how much I rely on others.  When maybe at first I should try and get myself through it, or even pray.  I did manage to laugh at myself for getting lost and at the weirdness of the whole situation.  I mean my mom tried to give me a crash course of Getting to the New House 101 last night while we were driving home, and I realized half-way through her schpeal that I wasn't gonna remember any of it.  I didn't do anything about it though, and so I was wandering the back streets for awhile.  But really, tying it into my math:  My mom mentioned something I think is true, sometimes that is how we have to learn:  we have to get lost and find ourselves and get back on the right track based on what we know.  I mean all the answers aren't going to float magically to us, but we have to study and think about it to, and try and be at least a little self-reliant and confident in ourselves as well.  Only in certain things are we completely helpless.  That's why I pray~

Getting back though, I was walking through the garage and to the door and saw on the ground a rat trap sticky pad thing with a sparrow stuck to it.  The house isn't finished yet so it had gotten in through the window and had been hunting for bugs the poor thing.  I started to try and help it, but I saw that it was futile, a lot of its feathers had been pulled out in its strugglings and its whole left side was stuck really badly to the pad, plus its feet were frozen in the stuff too.  So as I started trying to get it off I started to think about ourselves sometimes.  A lot of times we get stuck in problems of our own, sin if you will.  And getting stuck there is some of the hardest stuff to get out of.  Sadly like the bird I was trying to help yesterday, but I'm so happy and grateful that in my life I've found myself stuck I had a loving Heavenly Father to help me out through his Son.  It's all i could think about as I couldn't help this bird.  

So, say a prayer for the little bird tonight, please.  

Night.