Meanwhile, I’ll be desperately clinging to my iPod touch for Tweetie, e-mail, and music. So I’ll still be quite available via Twitter, but a little quiet everywhere else. Tootles for now!

Update: Just kidding. I’m still here for a few more days. They don’t think anything is wrong. *annoyed* Ordering new fan replacements, just in case. *sigh*

I have to say, it’s been a very good driving mix and I’ve gone through it about ten times by now. Not sick of it yet. I’m thinking of making a second one as well… my brother can spare some more space in that 6-CD changer for another CD of mine. Hehe.

My home at college was so exciting. I lived in the same building as many of my friends, I didn’t have to ask my parents if I could go out or have my friends come up for a movie. We just did it. And I loved the freedom. Now that I’m back in my parent’s house, it’s a little restricting again. Even though I do have more freedoms than I did while going to grade school here (read: car), I still have all those memories of being trapped here because I wasn’t allowed to go out. It makes it pretty suffocating here still. So my goal, as I leave my little dorm room an come home here, is to try to make it more exciting again. Basically, stay active and creative so I don’t feel so suffocated at home.

So guess what I did?! First thing I did when I came home Thursday, was jump in my car (I missed it) and drive down to the beach and take pictures of the sunset. I had about three minutes before it was gone when I got there, so I snapped until my battery died. Then I just sat in the car for a while and watched the sky get dark. It was nice. As much as I hate the clichéd pictures of my town’s lighthouse (there are only so many angles one can cover), I don’t think I can ever get sick of the sunsets over Lake Michigan.

I went out again last night. This time in an attempt to chase some lightning. I didn’t get any good lightning pictures, but I got some cool rainy night shots  of the bridge and the river downtown. I also have found some good locations for shooting lighting on the lake for when the weather is better. It’s still a bit chilly out here. Some summer rains will be more comfortable I think. See the results from both nights of shooting on my Flickr.

I did get to take pictures of the end result of the downtown Grand Rapids Sidewalk Chalk Flood, organized by a 20 year old community college student, Rob Bliss. I hear it was a wonderful experience. I did give my own little contribution. My very own little Twitter bird with my Twitter handle beneath it. Hehe. Not sure if anyone found it. They were literally picking up the chalk pieces around me as I was drawing it and it rained the next day. But check out all my cool photos of the event here. Yet another busy weekend of photography for me!

Posted in Internet Addiction, Life, Photography Stuff Tagged: chalk, class, downtown, experiment, flickr, flood, Grand Rapids, Life, movie, Photography Stuff, pictures, project, rain, Rob Bliss, sidewalk, stop motion, Twitter, urban, video, Vimeo ]]> http://musicalsoliloquy.wordpress.com/2009/04/20/sidewalk-chalk-flood/feed/ 1 LN Twitter Bird http://musicalsoliloquy.wordpress.com/2009/04/18/weekend-of-photography/ http://musicalsoliloquy.wordpress.com/2009/04/18/weekend-of-photography/#comments Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:36:13 +0000 Ellen http://musicalsoliloquy.wordpress.com/?p=363 ]]> I’m not usually one for sports. In any form. I don’t play sports, I don’t watch sports, my only exceptions being Olympic diving and gymnastics, and Winter Olympics. But that’s only every other year, which is plenty enough for me. But to say that I actually got excited and was yelling at this dodgeball tournament is saying something.

Dodgeball is a smaller sport in collegiate levels,  not many universities have them, but mine does, and we hosted the Dodgeball National Championship Tournament the other week. It sounded like it would be something fun to shoot so I took my camera and went to the game. I stayed through the semi-finals on the last day and let’s just say, my university dominated the whole time and went on to win. The best game was where another Michigan team had our side pegged down to one guy, but he kept catching balls that allows another player onto the court, and we turned the game around and still beat the other team. I don’t think I got as many pictures for that game because I was too busy yelling. And I think I’ve added dodgeball to my list of exceptions that I’ll watch.

Here is my flickr set of the best photos from the games. Click through to see more.

The other shoot I did that weekend was some behind the set stuff for my friend Mike. He has been filming his new student run TV show, Jeff & Mike Write A Comic and asked me for some photos. I have to say, his show looks hilarious and it was great fun being on the set in my friends’ apartment. I’m really looking forward to when the show actually comes out. But until then, enjoy these behind the scenes shots of the filming. Click through the image for more.

Anyway, so that was the last half of my week. Spent skipping non-essential classes to sleep 10-13 hours a day and drink five or six refills of my aluminum water bottle. My reward, not having to do homework, and making a full recovery by the time I had to go see my parents and go to a play.

Oh! Something interesting now, you say? Yes, I saw a play. My family and some guests went to see The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. It is a Broadway musical, though somewhat lesser known. My critique is it was very good and enjoyable. Quite funny and cute, with good music and an interesting twist of some audience participation! If you have seen this musical, or know of it, then I will tell you, my favorite character was Leaf Coneybear because he has cats. Don’t worry. That’s not a spoiler if you have not seen the musical. Just an inside joke. Hehe.

Well, back to my continuing hectic work week. All my final project deadlines are coming up very soon, so I’ve got a lot to finish. Good luck to me!

Right now, it’s two weeks before finals and I’ve already pulled an all-nighter in order to complete some homework on time since it’s been put off by my amazing procrastination skills, known well among all my peers. Not that I am bragging (although I am the best).

Anywho, that’s the lack of posting. This is to keep up with my one a week goal and as heads up. Haha. I have lots of photos to comb through from events the past few weeks, but I’m not letting myself get to them until my essential homework is done. Self control, ftw!

• Rebel XT – Body, bought used.
• 18-55mm Kit Lens – Came with the body, what I mainly use for my portrait photography.
• 75-300mm telephoto zoom lens – I bought this before a vacation, great use for distance, landscape and nature photogrpahy.
• 50mm f/1.8 lens - My most recent addition, I plan to use this for my portrait photography as well.

Click through for Details

In addition to those, I have my old Canon PowerShot S80, camera bag, neck strap, extra CF cards for the Rebel, and SD cards for the PowerShot, three batteries that the cameras share, a remote for the Rebel, a light tripod for the PowerShot, and a heavy duty one for the Rebel.

So that’s going to be my collectioni for a while. It’s all I need for what I do. I think if I get another lens in a while, it’s probably going to be a macro lens. But that can wait since I don’t use macro nearly as much as would be worth it right now. But someday I will!