The End of my First 365

A year ago today I started my first 365 photo project, which was taking one photo a day. Didn't matter what, just taking a photo.

I am proud to say that I have finished that project, complete with 365 photos. I really enjoyed taking part in it and am very glad that I finished and didn't miss any. I think when I started the project I was hoping to gain more photography knowledge and become better, but I am not sure it happened.

Dz taught me about ISO, which has been very helpful and I think that a lot of my pictures are better because I have a better understanding of ISO. Mind you, I can't tell you what it means or how it works...or even why... BUT I do know that if you can, you usually want to shoot at 100/200 ISO for good light and then turn the ISO up when the lighting gets worse. (If I am wrong, I am sure dz will correct me). After learning this tid bit, I went from using 800 and 1600 ISO to using 400 most of the time. Because of that my pictures came out less grainy, which in turn, helped them come out better.

I still have miles to go in learning photography, but I think while doing this project I have come up with some of my best shots as of yet and some definite favorites (which is to say they are my favorites, not necessarily the best or even good). Overall I am happy with how the project turned out and I think I will miss it.

So now, I will go on to finish my Year of Me 365 project...still have a few months left on that one.

Click below to see the pics...

Father's Day Weekend

This past weekend was very bittersweet for me. It was awesome to make it home and visit with my parents, it is always something I look forward to. The familiar house, the familiar bed. When I am there, it's so routine like I never left. And I got to do what I wanted, which was visit my mom for Mother's Day and then visit my dad for Father's Day. Though, everytime I visit, it seems to get harder and harder for me to leave. The evening after I get back to Fullerton, I am always bummed out and sad.

The bitter part of the weekend was having to put our dog DJ to sleep. He had been having trouble with his hips. He was an Akita, most bigger breeds have a predisposition to hip dysplasia, which is where the hips and the sockets don't quite meet up anymore. Anyway, he had been having trouble and when I was home for Mother's Day, he was still perky DJ, though having trouble walking. He met me in the garage while I was doing laundry and he was nudging me for attention and I noticed how bad his hips/legs were. I started crying while petting him, knowing he didn't look good. He was still mobile, but it's hard to see your pet that way. At that time I gained composure, but then I walked into the house and lost it again.

This time, a month later, he was not looking good. He would bark, cry and had started having some incontinence issues. When you went outside, there was no greeting you and nudging your had for a pat on the head, he just laid there. My parents were giving him glucosamine/chondroitin and aspirin to try and help, but I think the pain had gone beyond that.

On Saturday, he had fallen into a hole and could not get out. My dad went out to help him and he bit my dad, which meant he was in pain. He was the sweetest dog ever, a big teddy bear, so for him to react that way, he must have been in pain. We then decided that the best thing to do was to see about putting him to sleep. It was a tough decision, but it was really the best for him because his quality of life wasn't very good. We loaded him into the car (quite difficult to do with a 80 pound dog that couldn't walk) and took him the SPCA in Visalia.

We decided to get him cremated, since it would have been hard to bring him back home and dig a hole for him in one, hot afternoon. This way he can come home and he can be buried. Or sit on a shelf if my parents so desire.

This whole thing has hit be pretty hard. We got DJ from a friend in 1999, when he was about 1 1/2 years old. And, like I said, he was a teddy bear. I was always playing fetch or tug of war with him. When I would sit on a patio chair, he would come up and try to jump in my lap...he only got his front paws up, though. I loved him dearly. And the last few days I have been feeling this immense guilt for not telling him bye. The last image I have of him alive was him being strapped to a stretcher and I had to turn around as they took him away. After they put him down, we went back to say goodbye one last time and that was really hard. I wasn't going to do it at first, but decided to. I'm glad I did, but it was very hard to see.

My friend just told me that the good thing with animals is that they don't know that their lives are ending. They only remember the lives they had with you and how much you loved them and the last 5 minutes don't really matter to them. I thought that was a nice way to think about it.

DJ

Pissy Days

Today I have been pretty cranky most of the day, though I can not think of a single reason. No person, event, situation that I can think of explains my mood today. The only thing I can think of is lack of sleep. Since Saturday, I've been used to getting a lot, arguably, the right amount of sleep, but last night I did not.

I do have to admit that I sometimes like when I get in these kinds of moods. I typically don't like my odds of maybe taking something out on someone else, but most of the time when I am in these moods I am more sassy, feisty and I have no patience (okay, less patience) and I am more likely to blurt out what I'm really thinking. This is something I rarely do. In fact, I think all of you would shocked if you knew what was really going on in my head, but thankfully I am a tactful person or I just keep my mouth shut. Though, a lot of the times I do feel bad after I have blurted something out when I am no longer cranky, but I usually talk myself out of it. I figure, it's what I really thought, no one took it badly and I try not to worry about it.

Maybe I need to learn to be this way on a more regular basis.

Odd Sickness

I don't know if you would call it a sickness, but I woke up this last Saturday morning with a sinus headache. We all know that's nothing new for me. I spent most of Saturday doing a few errands and I noticed that when I got through the door after carrying a bunch of stuff up the stairs, that I really didn't feel well. I fixed me some lunch and was up for a little while, but around 5p I just felt so worn out, weak and my head pounding that I just had to lay down. I woke up at around 8p and watched some TV, then I was back in bed at 11p, still not feeling great.

I woke up Sunday morning at 830a, with the same headache. I ate a little something and felt nauseous immediately, so I stopped eating and just laid down and watched a movie. Around noon, I went back to bed and slept til about 3p. I then stayed up til 830p, kind of snacking and watching TV. I was also constantly thirsty, so I drank a lot of water.

This morning, I woke up, headache gone, but still felt pretty weak. The shower that I took this morning pretty much took it out of me, so I had to lay down for a few minutes afterwards. I felt pretty slow and tired all morning, but it got a little better this afternoon. Now that I am home, I feel beat.

I have no clue what is going on, it was just very odd. I'm always tired, but it's rare for me to go to bed in the middle of the afternoon and sleep for a few hours unless there is something wrong. Seems like I am/was fighting something, but no idea what. I did take my temp. on Saturday and one time it said 99.7, but any other time I took it was it was normal. Who knows.

Happy Birthday...

...To my wonderful dad! I love you very much! :)

311 - Uplifter, Album Review

So, I will try not to be too biased with my thoughts on Uplifter. It might be hard because I've been a 311 fan for about 13 years now...I should say hardcore fan, so I will try to keep that in check while I write this.

311's musical style has drastically changed from the time I became a fan (1996) to now. Their first three albums (Music, Grassroots, Self Title [usually referred to as the Blue Album]), were more heavy musically, lots of rapping, explicit language. I almost want to say their music sounded more angsty, but 311 is definitely not an angsty band. Their "slogan" has always been to "Stay positive and love your life." Anyway, I feel that their fourth album (Transistor) is where things began to change. This was a highly experimental type album, drastically different from the previous three and I am pretty sure they did lose some fans because of that album. I admit when I first heard it, I was like "WTF?" but I do love it now and it has *MY* song on it, "Beautiful Disaster." Their fifth album (Soundsystem) was full of rock/reggae, so that makes it freaking awesome on its own. Admittedly their next few albums kind of run together for me...the sixth (From Chaos) and seventh (Evolver) are good albums, but nothing really stands out for me. Of course, I have my favorite songs from those albums, such as "Uncalm" off From Chaos (Most of you probably know the song "Amber," which is off From Chaos as well) and "Give me a Call" from Evolver. Their eighth album, Don't Tread On Me was okay. For some reason to me, while not horrible, it did seem half hearted in some places and it just didn't seem to have the normal 311 effort that you can feel in other albums. Though, I do love some tracks from that album such as "Waiting" and the title song.

Most of 311's albums are about 2 years apart, but the wait for Uplifter was much longer. Don't Tread On Me came out in 2005 and 4 years later, we have Uplifter. (I will pick now to say that I am only counting studio albums of new music, but they do have a greatest hits, a live album and other random songs out there.) I thought a small piece of background would be nice prior to my talking about Uplifter. Though, most people probably won't know what I am talking about, I do hope I've put some things in context.

For the last months, the lead singer of 311, Nick Hexum, has talked about how excited they are for this new album, how they put a lot of work into and how they feel it is their best album in a long time. While I'm sure most bands say this stuff, I have to completely agree. Personally, I haven't felt so awesome about an album since Soundsystem. Uplifter as a whole is a great album. Of course, I already have some songs that speak to me more than others, but when I listen to the album, I am excited all the way through. By the way, the album came out this past Tuesday (06/02/2009) and I've probably listened to it, front to back, about 15 times already.

To me, Uplifter isn't book-ended very well. I find that most artists will put their better songs at the beginning of the album and at the end of the album and put the not as good in the middle of the album. Uplifter is the opposite. I think the stronger songs are in the middle, with the beginning and end of the album not as strong. I am not saying that this is a bad thing, but seems to be different from the norm. For me, the album starts to get really strong around track 5, "India Ink" and well, fades by the last song, "My Heart Sings." There are two bonus tracks from a deluxe version of Uplifter, which are pretty good. It is too early for me to pick out a favorite from this album...I may have a favorite part of a song, though. Track 8, "Never Ending Summer" starts off w/the 311 chant (heard at most of their concerts), which I love. And, I have always felt that 311, especially in recent years, hasn't had a knack for picking out singles. While "Hey You", their current single, isn't their strongest song, but it might be the most radio friendly.

Now, I think I can say what I'm about to say because I am such a diehard fan, but sometimes 311 does have some cheesy/corny lyrics...and sometimes you almost have that "I'm embarrassed for you" feeling. I have never felt their lyrics were their strong suit, but their music. Wow. The music in this album is awesome. There's so many parts in different songs that just blow me away. I am not sure if it is so much musicianship (not that they are horrible musicians), as much as it is their talent for mixing together different beats/riffs/sounds/styles. 311 has always been known for this talent of just mixing things up and the finished product is amazing. I really feel that Uplifter brings this talent to the surface once again.

Uplifter is definitely their strongest album in 10 years, no doubt. Whether it's public/radio friendly, who knows. Their most famous songs in recent years were "Amber" and "Love Song" (a Cure cover) and those are definitely not my favorites. I am very excited about this album and I am very happy for the band. Being a long term 311 fan, it hasn't always been easy to see them go from one style to another, constantly changing their sound. They have gotten older, they have evolved and naturally their are going to change and their music is going to change, which is the way it should be. It's never good to be stagnant, repeating the same stuff over and over again. While their older stuff is my favorite (in large part because of sentimental reasons), their newer stuff is great too. There are a lot of fans of think 311 aren't as good now or they have been let down because they don't sound like the Blue Album anymore, which is unfortunate. If fans can get on board and accept that 311 has evolved and that they do have a different style now and that they will never be the way they were...if they can go with the flow, they will totally love this album.

If you are interested in checking out the album, 311's My Space page has Uplifter streaming.

My Best Blonde Moment Ever

Yesterday I truly owned up to my hair color...

I was having lunch w/some girls at work and the topic of where our food comes from came up. One girl was talking about cows and how she thought we should use every bit of the animal, just like they did in "Indian times." So I chime in, "what do they do w/the bones?" She said they put that into dog food and cat food. (I guess she's right?) And here is where I make myself look like a complete idiot: I ask, "what do they do w/the skin/hide of the cow?" Both girls looked at each other and then looked at me said, "uh, leather."

For the record, I knew that, just not yesterday apparently. I felt pretty stupid. My response was, "what the hell is wrong w/me? I knew that. Geez."

Yeah...I'm just awesome sometimes.