| I Want This Dress! |
[21 Dec 2009|01:17am] |
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I want the dress on the right. I have no idea where I wear it, but I like to think I can live a classy 80's punk fantasy in it. Sadly Ark & Co is a company that doesn't directly sell to people - must find a way...but on a sad note it's $99. On a sadder note, I'm still sad that after high school there's really no events to get dress up nice and dance. I haven't been to enough weddings I guess, but still a ball would be fun to go to!
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| Building a Photograph in Post |
[15 Dec 2009|05:07pm] |
Back when I shot this I didn't know as much about lighting. I also shot it on outdoor balanced film since the initial plan was to use natural light, but the day ended up being cloudy and I brought in Tungsten and forgot to put the filter on my camera. So as a result, lots of post was needed.
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Original scan straight from the negative at 1200 ppi, some adjustments done in the scanner. |
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Original scan straight from the negative at 1200 ppi from the last frame, where I liked the puddle of the sundae better. Some adjustments done in the scanner. |
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Sundae portion after Adobe Camera Raw adjustments. |
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Double processing done to all layers in ACR, masks applied and some curves and sharpen/blur applied to different channel in Lab Color mode.
Final file size: 123.2 M
Current Dimensions: 7.5 x 11, 300 ppi |
The piece is going into the Staff art show and I'll be printing it poster size. Since the layers are smart objects, I can still adjust the final dimensions and should be okay to print it at roughly the size print Kuro is modeling:
It still needs some tweaks on the boots and skin, but I have to stop picking at it today.
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| Fun This Weekend |
[15 Dec 2009|04:18pm] |
Holiday party at work is going to be a blast!
The Full Sail Backlot will be decked out in festive holiday decorations, and the menu for the evening is simply incredible: Steak Grill Stations featuring Seared Tenderloin of Beef and Grilled Flank Steak, French Bread and Steak Fries; Seafood Stations featuring Whole Smoked Salmon and Grouper, Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail and Crab Claws; Soup and Sandwich Stations featuring Cuban Sandwiches and Black Bean Soup, Grilled Vegetable Paninis and Roasted Red Bell Soup; Sushi Stations with a variety of Sushi Rolls; and Hearty Pasta Stations featuring Jambalaya Pasta and Tuscan Chopped Salad with Grilled Ciabatta Bread. The evening wouldn’t be complete without wonderful Dessert Stations and a selection of beer, wine, liquor, cappuccino, lattes, espresso, hot cocoa and soda’s throughout the night.
Adding to the festive spirit of the season will be a live 10-piece band playing holiday favorites and hits through the years, as well as a live DJ to carry us into the night.
Salmon, black bean soup, sushi, and dessert, you will be mine, oh yes!
We're going to Gainesville Friday after work until Saturday to celebrate Christmas with my family since we'll be in Cleveland with Jared's for the 25th. Can't wait to see them and snow! I dreamt last night we were there and there was this beautiful white snow but it wasn't cold. Sadly Jared's brother and his wife are no longer coming so Jared's mom had to cancel the family photos she had planned. I know she was really looking forward to those photos.
Saturday is the ORC party. We'll try to get back from Gainesville in time for it, but we might not make it.
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| Holiday Challenge Complete! 100,000 Meters! |
[15 Dec 2009|08:14am] |
Me, after I completed the last piece.
Total Meters Rowed: 100,133.00 (62.2197616 miles)
Total Time it Took: 464.482 minutes, or about 7.74 hours (over the course of 8 separate days)
Avg Split: 2:18.2
Avg Watts: 137.17 (avg weight is 125 lbs.)
Total Calories Burned: 5,758.27
Total Money Raised for Slow Food: $2.01 (i feel I've made such a difference in the world!)
Total Blisters Obtained: 6
More info on the Holiday Challenge.
So now what?
Well, I promised myself if I completed this I would compete in the 2010 Southern Sprints. It will be on January 31st. Master's Women 30- 39 will be my category this year, which I guess is a good category, being the youngest and theoretically most spry of the age category. Gold last year went to a woman with a 08:28.3 and not to sound arrogant but um, check out my avg split above for doing hour long pieces (granted with breaks in between) and "whispers* that's not full pressure. Last 2K I did it in 8:15.6 (right after my 30th bday.) This woman was actually an open weight, I'm entering in lightweight (there were no lightweights entered last year so no results to compare.) In order for Concept2 to pay for my flight up to C.R.A.S.H.-B's, I'd have to qualify with a time of 7:20.1 or better. I don't think I'll manage to shave almost a minute off my time. It's just as well, last year's winner in that category pulled a 07:09.6 at C.R.A.S.H.-Bs!!!!
I will make this promise now. If I get gold I will do a marathon on the erg (26 miles.) Damn you, Rob, for doing it twice this month and making me feel like a slacker for not following. I won't have your 1:59 split, I am okay with pulling like a 2:30, hah hah, but I will do it.
Now, I made a promise to my psoas muscle not to erg until new year. Then it's 2K tests in preparation for that big giant erg competition at the end of the month!
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| Daleks Having Sex (NSFW) |
[13 Dec 2009|10:39pm] |
David Tennant, Catherine Tate, and Noel Fielding (with awesome hat) talking about Daleks having sex??
Man I need to start downloading shows like Nevermind the Buzzcocks.
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| The Fear of Never Returning Home |
[13 Dec 2009|12:51pm] |
My dream was a mix of my current life with some elements from my past. And I woke up feeling nostalgic, which of course is not a very good feeling. Nostos is the homeward journey, originally referring to the Odysseus. And algos means pain. The heroes from Troy feared never seeing home again. I don't want to have these dreams any more. Although the fact that I do have them so often might betray this statement. Regardless, I can't escape them. I still see my father, my grandmother, and the two cats I lost as a child often. And when I wake up and realize that wound that had already scarred over had been open back up again, it makes it harder to progress. Every week since my last row in college I dreamt about being back at the boathouse. The only thing that satisfied it is when I was able to row again. And when I went back to get my Masters, the constant dreams about being in school stopped. Though now they're back again.
V.S. Ramachandran is known for his work in the fields of behavioral neurology and psychophysics (investigates the relationship between physical stimuli and their subjective correlates, or percepts) and we read one of his books, Phantoms in the Brain, where he discussed topics such as the phantom limb, in my senior philosophy class at Rollins. He speculated that dreaming is a time for our brain to run a bit freer and start bringing up all that stuff we've repressed. I have often used my dreams to help me find my true feelings about certain things. For instance, when Jared and I were engaged, I would have several dreams where I was marrying someone else and suddenly panicked at the realization that I didn't want to marry this man. Like Sartre's description of how we are thrown into life and it isn't our choice, I was waking up into this dream where I somehow couldn't control the events that had lead up to this point. This is how I'd imagine Sam Beckett must have felt every time he quantum leaped. But when I would wake up I would see Jared quietly sleeping beside me and I would feel so relieved. There are a few places I keep coming back to from my childhood in my dreams. Like a ghost returning to an important landmark I find myself returning to the back yard of my mom's home in Tampa. It's always dark out and I am coming up from the path at the lake to the porch. You can see lights flooding in from the sliding glass doors.
I have escaped dealing with the consequences of past mistakes but I have also had to live with the consequences of others' mistakes. I shouldn't dwell on the past because that desire to keep the world static is where all the pain comes from when things change. But Jared is right. I should not also dwell on the positive past. Nothing is just good or bad, and every progression that happens will have positive factors that if ignored, would drive one crazy. The most powerful place in my dreams, the place I see again and again, the place I saw last night, is my grandparent's pool.
  
Sparkling aqua and clean, it was always the axis of summer picnics, birthday parties, and memories. The place I learned to swim, before I could even walk. But there was a warning in this dream. I tried to walk through a giant web weaved between the palm trees and a large spider held onto the strand of silk that stuck to my body. Panicked I jumped off the diving board into the deep end and swam to the bottom, but started struggling there with another person, who was trying to push me over to where the spider danced at the surface. The water rippled but when I looked up I could catch a glimpse of something black up there. And when I needed to come up for air, I tried to swim to a safe location but I was pulled back over and I spider ended up on my face where I felt it bite me. I screamed and tried to brush him off where he bite my hand, my knee, all the way down. And when I looked at the back of my hand, I saw a white welt forming. By the time I was out of the water, everyone was gone.
The pool today is in a state of repair. My grandfather, for being as amazingly active as he still is, has been having difficulty keeping his prized possession in the state I always remember it. With the death of my grandmother he seems to have lost all interest. The last couple of times I have visited, the water was still drained and my brother was working on patching a few things. It also needs some filling ins around the base of the pool and the sidewalk that surrounds it. I know eventually it will have water in it again, but seeing it like this is such an omen. Things really, really aren't going to be like they once were.
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| Knitting! |
[09 Dec 2009|10:32pm] |
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I might have to take up knitting again just because this picture is so cute!
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