Haven’t been writing in here as often lately, and I think that’s working out better. I dunno… I don’t feel obligated to write here daily anymore, which was a stupid reason to keep writing here anyway.

So yeah.

A lot’s been happening lately, both academically and non. Academics have been okay, I guess. Not doing as well in classes as I’d like to be doing, but I’m also not stressing about them as much as I used to (I guess), so I don’t know… kinda balances out… maybe?
There’s just so much work I need to get done and so little time to do it all. Mrr.

As far as non-academics go, I’m really happy with where I am right now in life. More importantly, I think, I’m feeling again. It’s weird, because I’m a lot less social than I used to be, and I still feel highly uncomfortable in large groups of people (which is why I’ve been purposely avoiding the cluster and KGB/KGB events)… but it seems to work, you know?

Chris from before our photo field trip on Wednesday… I really like the photo, and I’m not sure why.

Yesterday was the first football game, and I went to photograph the Kiltie Band (and, I guess, the game too). We won something like 34-6 (when I left it was something like 30-0)… but that’s not important, because no one cares about the game.
We were sitting behind some very vehement supporters of the other team, and it was funny to see them squirm.

Um… after that, I went and shot some film with Everett for my photo assignments. He’s an amazing creative influence… two rolls of film and something like 225 digitals shot over the span of 4 hours (and that’s just me). I’m really happy with a bunch of the digitals, and I’m hoping the film will turn out half as good. He has a really good eye for what’s interesting and what will photograph well, and knows how to achieve it with his camera. More importantly, he knows how to compose the picture: where to stand, how high to stand, what orientation, what framing… that’s something I’m severely lacking in right now. Even if I do find something that will photograph well, I’m bound to screw it up with my methods. Heh. Despite all of that, I got a ton of good photos yesterday. Highlights (none of the following images have been adjusted at all, just pulled from the camera, resized, and watermarked):

This caught my eye because of the colors: burnt sienna, green, and gray (and nothing else). Ev pointed out the hints of yellow (flowers and the chalk), and think those just improve the picture…

This is pretty much the same shot as I’d already done with film for class, but the lighting is really different. This picture looks a lot lighter, the colors are a little brighter, and the entire image took on a warmer tone. Unfortunately, I don’t think it particularly works for the image… the film one I took when it was overcast and rainy, and the lack of shadow combined with the darker green of the leaves worked better… but still, overall not a terrible image despite not being as good as before.

This is one of those scenes that just catches your eye and you say to yourself, “There’s a picture there. How do I get it out?” I had a hard time deciding whether this image worked better brighter with a lower saturation (to subdue the colors) or darker with a higher saturation (to bring out the color in the leaves). Ended up shooting it both ways (yay for my camera with its tons of features and adjustment options), and I think it works better with maxed out saturation. The different colors in the photo are just amazing, especially the reflected sky blue on the windows in the background.

This location (in the UC parking garage) caught my eye because of the light that we were getting through the slit thingies. Harsh, but not too harsh… good shadows but not-blown-out highlights. I think it ended up working really well for portraiture. This might actually be my favorite of all the digitals I shot yesterday.

Can’t go wrong with sunsets.

He also gave me a real appreciation for different lighting. I swear, Pittsburgh was cooperating with us, because it gave us the entire range of lighting, from direct lighting (for harsh shadows and washed-out colors) to soft lighting (excellent for portraiture) to evening lighting (as the sun was setting), and every range in-between. I got to play with shadows, reflections, and diffuse lighting. It’s amazing how much lighting can affect a shot and whether or not it comes out (the second photo I posted today, for example).

Ohgodsomuchhomeworktodotodayahhh

I had the weirdest dream last night. It started out with me at some gathering or something, and someone said something to which I responded, “That reminds me of that Wayside school story.” I then proceeded to start counting, and then counted the primes, and then the fibonacci numbers, and then went into a story about a serial killer that stalked me. Parts of it were like I was reading a book, other parts were like it was happening to me. Highlights from the dream:
-He’s killed a lot of people in this town, so I read something like, “Slowly, I told the townspeople what to do; they worked together.” Stupidest sentence ever written.
-President Bush comes to (my?) grade-school class for Q&A session. He is asked questions that are like what CMU students would ask him, and is made to look like a complete idiot. The killer (as a kid?) asks him how to kill people. He responds that you just need to be governor.
-I manage to corner him (with two friends) at this house with a cop (whom we had called earlier to be there because I deduced his next target), and he had this huge machine gun. My friends came out of the car and walked up the driveway toward him (the cop was sitting in the garage watching), and one of them had a gun. The cop immediately reacted to this with, “She’s got a gun! She’s got a gun! Drop it now! Drop it!” at my friend (who just had a small handgun), even as the killer mowed the other one down with the machine gun. He then killed my friend with the gun, and the cop blinked for a second, stared, and was like “mother f***…” before getting killed himself. I somehow manage to tackle the killer and immobilize him briefly… suddenly, I’m not me anymore, I’m some random girl… then “I” grab some eyelash curler things, use them to pluck an eyelash from the killer (evidence?), and desperately give it to one of the guys who was shot except I poke his eye out with it instead somehow.
-I’m myself again, and I get the hell out of there as fast as I can in my car. I drive quickly around the corner (with him behind, no doubt) and squeeze into a garage just behind another car (because there’s apparently enough room in there). This poor guy has no idea what’s going on, with me desperately pounding at the car windows from the inside, pointing to a guy walking up the driveway with a machine gun. I duck down in the car so he can’t see me (huh?) and he starts firing through the car, lengthwise. It’s like a horrible video game… I deduce where he’s going to fire next (middle! left! right!) and avoid getting hit until the other guy can grab the killer and starts slamming him back and forth against the two walls of the garage. The killer pulls out his cell phone while this is happening and calls a professional hitman. Fortunately for me, I had planted some of my friends earlier in the year to pretend to be hitmen to help catch him… and he calls them instead.
-Back to the book feel of the story, and there’s this prologue thing with cheesy writing again. I wake up, and Ian, Tim, Apphia, and Al-Tim are there and I get up, turn on my computer, and write about this dream. Then my alarm goes off and I wake up for real, and now I’m sitting here writing this… (was written this morning before class… not posted until now)

I also had another dream a few days ago where I was sitting in a Chinese restraunt with my parents, and someone ordered the cat. The waiter brings out a whole orange-and-white-striped kitten whose back has been slit open and that has been cooked, except it’s still alive and still moving its head around. The person starts scooping (cooked) chunks out of its back and dipping them in some provided sauce as the kitten squirms. Ewwwww.

Today we did Van Dyke printing in alt. photo. OMG, so much fun! I went back to the darkroom to experiment tonight, and got a bunch of crappy prints before I realized that putting the stuff straight on the paper instead of coating it first makes the image come out instead of washing out in the wash. Wheee!

Much other homework to do, bleh. Been in the darkroom for the past 3 hours instead of working… but darkroom is so much more fun!

Meh, pictar, I guess. Tomorrow I’ll scan some of the Van Dyke prints to post.
Making Van Dyke prints:

The process isn’t sensitive to white light, so I can take pictures of the process. Yay!
Of course, since the stuff uses UV light to develop, and we have huge UV light developer things, I think this may be the first time anyone’s ever tanned from being in a darkroom too much :-P

The human need for companionship and interaction is stupid. People are overrated.
Solitude makes me feel comfortable. This is a good thing.

Um… I’ve been shooting film with my new camera. I really like it… it’s nicer to use than my old AE-1 (which is currently out of batteries anyway), even if the film is harder to load… and it has a flash, which is a definite plus. I have 15 more rolls of film. It’s going to be expensive to develop it all. Meh. Stupid not-being-able-to-develop-color-film-at-CMU.

I really like this song (Wonderchild by Adam Pascal). I think I’m going to buy his CDs next month when my budget clears up.

I’m feeling like I’m behind on homework, even though two of the things I’m freaking out about were assigned only yesterday, and I have a pretty good idea of how to do my graphics program (due Thursday), and I have about 1/10 of my algo homework left (due Tuesday). Still, I should work harder. I slack too much. There’s no reason that graphics should not already be finished. Algo should have been done last weekend. Bleh.

I have my finals on the first Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday this semester (three on Thursday and Friday… ewww). This means I could potentially go home that weekend. I’m debating whether I actually want to leave then, or if I want to go home as late as possible. I don’t know. I like it so much better here, but going home means I get to see my parents.

Red Robot vs. the Vermillion mascot (whose name I forget because I am a bad person… Akari Vermillion?) at the activities fair yesterday.

That reminds me… I should post pictures of the activities fair. I have them batched and everything, I just need to upload. I should do that, shouldn’t I? Meh.