we’re halfway there! February 29, 2008
Posted by Abby T in : academic pursuits, rants & raves, the photo project , add a commentWHOOO-OOA! LIIIIVIN’ ON A PRAAA-AAYER.
Sorry. Sometimes the little Bon Jovi cover band in my head just has to be heard.
About three more inches of snow last night, I see from looking out my window… but my computer says it’s 34 degrees outside! Above freezing! Heat wave! I couldn’t be more excited.
Well, I’d be more excited if I weren’t so hungry, but as soon as I sign this post I’m heading over to breakfast. So by the time you’re reading this, you may rest assured that I couldn’t be more excited.
Here’s today’s photo.
I love the contrast between the inside areas of the leaves and their edges in this photo. But that’s not all that I love about it. I just can’t put my finger on the rest.
Anyway, it’s time for school. Did I mention that this quarter is almost over? Next week is the last week of classes (and tech week for my winter show). After that comes reading week (which is also the first week of rehearsals for my spring show), then finals week and then spriiing break.
(This side has birds on it.)
-@
yes. February 28, 2008
Posted by Abby T in : (pointless) humor, fun with google, ten-second updates , 1 commentGoogle search term of the day:
“piano playing lobsters”.
Come on, guys. Lobsters don’t even have fingers.
-@
we could use a little soulshine?
Posted by Abby T in : music & concerts, the photo project , add a commentListen to this in the background while you look at today’s photo. I named the photo after the album this song is from, and for whatever reason it just works really well for me.
This is some building in Manhattan. Somewhere in Midtown. I was wandering around and I thought the spheres were really interesting, so I snapped a few photos before being told to skedaddle by some security guard. It was the day of some sort of protest - I forget what was being protested at the time - so he probably mistook me for a Hooligan ™ or something.
Anyway, I love the photo, and I love the song you should be listening to right now if you’ve followed my instructions. The sound quality of the YouTube video is pretty crappy, but if you like it you can buy the album here. Yes, you read that properly. I suggested that you purchase music if you like it. I think I’m part of a dwindling minority of my generation that would rather pay for music than hit up the Pirate Bay. But that is a topic for another day.
. Yes, you read that properly. I suggested that you purchase music if you like it. I think I’m part of a dwindling minority of my generation that would rather pay for music than hit up the Pirate Bay. But that is a topic for another day.If you like cats want to laugh really hard, take a look at the World’s Heaviest Harness pool on Flickr. I’m still giggling.
-@
clandestine class blogging February 27, 2008
Posted by Abby T in : academic pursuits, the photo project , add a commentI try not to bring my laptop to class because it’s so distracting (see: updating my blog in class), but I had to this morning because my registration time for spring quarter classes falls during Restoration & 18th Century Lit.
So here I am.
Photo du jour!
This was taken near my mother’s old apartment in Manhattan. I like the colors.
Anyway, here’s what I’m taking next quarter:
English 359: Victorian Lit
English 298: Intro Sem in Reading & Interpretation
Slavic 255: Intro to Slavic Civ
English 351: Romantic Poetry
Yep. Three English classes and a random Slavic Studies class, because it’s a historical studies distribution class and it fits in my scheduling scheme for the quarter.
Winter quarter’s scheduling scheme had me in class all morning and free all afternoon. I was out by 1pm every day. It was nice - it helped me get up in the morning and therefore be more productive in the afternoon. Spring quarter, I am only in class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Three classes back-to-back-to-back from 9:30-2, then an hour and a half in which to eat and do the reading for my 3:30-5 class.
For the four weeks next quarter when I’m in rehearsal or tech for the Bacchae, Tuesdays and Thursdays are going to suck. I’m going to leave my apartment at 9AM and get back at 11PM (poor kitty will be lonely!). But I think it will be worth it for a four-day weekend and a free Wednesday every week.
Two days on, and five days off? Survey says: definitely yes!
-@
daily photo favorite February 26, 2008
Posted by Abby T in : the photo project , add a commentYes, Internetland! I am going to force you to look at my photos every day that I remember to! BAHAHA!
Took this one in Bequia in the summer of 2004:
That’s Selmaan just sorta chilling there. Nice of him to pose for me without knowing it, eh?
-@
four inches in five hours
Posted by Abby T in : rants & raves, ten-second updates , 2 commentsI’m so sick of snow.
When I grow up, I want to live in a place and have a job that both allow me to wear Chacos to work year ’round.
Can’t wear Chacos in the snow.
I wish my feet looked like this right now:
Night night.
-@
daily photo favorites? February 25, 2008
Posted by Abby T in : the photo project , add a commentSure, why not. Here’s today’s:
I took this one a couple years ago now, I guess, and I really like it. It’s a sign in the park/river walk by the East River in Manhattan, close to where my dad lives. It reminds me of Mr. Popper’s Penguins for whatever reason.
-@
I think I finally get it. February 24, 2008
Posted by Abby T in : rants & raves, technophilia, the photo project, wish list , 1 commentI never thought I’d find myself feeling the need, however legitimate, to get myself a DSLR camera. I’ve got a great SLR and a great little digital camera, both Canon, and they both have served me very well for their respective purposes. I took a few photography classes in high school, and they were the best way to get a class credit for a term I ever could have imagined. I learned a lot and had a great time and I have a portfolio I’m pretty proud of from those days. My digital camera works like a dream for my non-artistic photography endeavors - gatherings, concerts, snapshots, whatever.
It never occurred to me that a mix of the two would make my life better until I took them both out shooting yesterday. It was a beautiful Saturday evening and I went to the park near my apartment to play with the light. I shot SLR until I was out of film and then I switched to digital and felt the difference instantly. I missed being able to tweak my focus and my depth of field, but I was loving being able to see my photos immediately and switch instantly back and forth between B&W and color. The combination would be the best of both worlds!
Eventually I found myself taking digital photos and making a mental note to come back to the park at the same time of day once I’ve got more film and have gotten my SLR’s battery changed. I want to do up some of these shots for real-style. (more…)
happy birthday to…
Posted by Abby T in : birthdays in history , add a commentSunday - Barry Bostwick (1945)
Monday - Carrot Top (1965)
Tuesday - Buffalo Bill (1846)
Wednesday - Chelsea Clinton (1980)
Thursday - Zero Mostel (1915)
Friday - Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff, Senior (1904) (seriously, no shit)
Saturday - Frederic Chopin aka Fryderyk Szopen, in the Polish (1810)
-@
(historical birthdays via brainyhistory.com)
intervention follow-up February 23, 2008
Posted by Abby T in : language & literature , 2 commentsI was inspired by my self-intervention, as we might call it, and so I chose a book from my stack of untackled tomes and got cracking. I picked William T. Vollman’s The Ice-Shirt, mostly because it was on top of the stack, but also a little bit because it belongs to a genre that I always forget that I like: way super-ancient historical fiction/mysticism/mythologies.
I’m only 65 pages in after this morning, but I’m thoroughly enjoying it. Expect a full review to come, hopefully, in a few weeks, but to anyone who can’t wait I highly recommend picking it up. So far it basically is taking names I’m sure we’ve all heard - Erik the Red, for one - and giving them much more stage time than history books usually do. Vollman’s prose successfully imitates the language you might expect to hear from the father of many Vikings on his deathbed, if he spoke English. Add a little creation mythology and give some kings the ability to turn into bears and you have a compelling history that sucks you right in and leaves you wondering why men don’t wear bear-shirts and burn each other at Yule-banquets anymore.
I wish they still did. It would make Presidential primary season so much more interesting.
-@