Project 365 - Week 38

Week 38.


Monday. Cullen cuddling with Dudley on the bed. It's not my bed. It's one of the Bolls's guest beds (isn't that a great bed spread?). They have been kind enough to let us stay with them since I am now 'homeless.' All of my furniture is in their basement storage area, along with many of my boxes. One thing I really love about Photoshop is the way that you can use layers to highlight just one little area (Cullen's face) so that it's a little brighter and so that you can actually see the definition of his fur and eye.


Tuesday. For the life of me, I cannot remember which research participant this is. Research participant? Well, it just about took forever for the USDA study that I was going to be working on with Paul to finally start. Originally, I was in charge of recruitment (which went very well - not one of the 14 people that came to do the study were students - which can be a feat since it's a college town with a campus of around 25K). But I ended up getting trained on how to place the biometric sensors and doing the study with participants. I made a few mistakes - like forgetting to do one final step for a few people at the beginning - but I also was able to figure out and fix why the heart rate signal was crazy (a bad sensor). The study showed participants 4 short 'commercials' on safely cooking meat and tracked their responses (both conscious and unconscious). Regardless of how she looks, it was neither painful nor terrifying.

Project 365 - Week 37

Week 37.


Monday. Isn't winter beautiful? It's the parking lot across from Lee Hills Hall, complete with snow.


Tuesday. Riley asleep. I need to take him to a chiropractor - he used to sleep like this all the time, before I took him to one and they adjusted his lower back. It was so bad, he wouldn't ever sit straight. He'd lean and then turn his head to the side. When she adjusted him, he was so stuck that it took several times and got to the point where he tried to bite her, it hurt so much. (And he doesn't try to bite anyone, even if they accidentally step on his feet.) Once he was adjusted, though, the splayed back feet and crooked neck went away and he slept like a normal dog.


Wednesday. A prop for some sort of shoot that I don't ever think ran in either the Missourian or Vox.

Project 365 - Week 36

Week 36. The year's drawing to a close and it's time to finish up things.


Monday. I chose this picture because it struck me as really funny (Kayley's hair). It was totally crazy. Which may not be very remarkable, but I am used to Kayley's hair looking like this. She got such a kick out of her hair being crazy.


Tuesday. My sweet Duds dozing on his pillow. Well, it's the boys' pillow, since it's on the other side of the bed, but right now it's Duds's pillow. He really likes lying there. And most of the time, when he's up there, he doesn't snore (breathe loudly).


Wednesday. Okay, it's finishing my proposal for my graduate project. Since I'm planning on going to Brussels, I'm wanting to do something related to the EU and how it negotiates the Muslim challenge (the fastest growing religion in Europe). I've honed in on doing a photo essay on EU officials as the personal project portion of my graduate project. Which is a scary thought because I have to *contact* powerful, official people to photograph them.

Project 365 - Week 35

Week 35.


Monday. I don't know why I find this unusual weather for November - rain - but I guess I think of November as being cold, not sweatshirt weather. I liked how this looked through the window after my photo desk management class. And I love that I caught someone walking across the street, a la Henri Cartier-Bresson. (Here's a compilation of his pictures courtesy of Magnum Photography, the agency he helped start in 1947. And here's pictures from a MOMA interactive exhibit.


Tuesday. I took this miserable picture after several hours of a terrible migraine where I felt like my head was going to explode. I'd pretty much done nothing all day except try to get rid of the stupid thing, thus this 'lovely' picture. No very glamorous but that's life, isn't it?


Wednesday. A picture from our family group Thanksgiving. (More pictures in this blog post. It was really delicious and not at all like last year where we didn't eat Thanksgiving food and instead ate tacos or something. Maybe it was pasta. All I know is that it was not Thanksgiving food.

I Love Psych

What has brought on this overwhelming emotion of love for this screwball detective show? The fact that they consistently pay homage to all that was awesome about the 80's. Whether it's their commercials (Miami Vice, 'Private Eyes'), their random but apropos references like "Dude, we're in Witness," or their use of 80s icons like Ralph Macchio (who still looks young!), Curt Smith, or the cast of Twin Peaks, they consistently warm my heart.


As I write this, I have just watched the "Dual Spires" episode and is was (as I sigh) great. I was an avid Twin Peaks viewer and am still the proud owner of 2 books - The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer and The Autobiography of F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper: My Life. My Tapes - as well as the audiotape: Diane... The Twin Peaks Tapes of Agent Cooper. There was so much in this episode that was a complete and clever shout out to the series.


Here's a list of the shout outs I picked up on...

Project 365 - Week 34

Week 34. Thanksgiving break.


Monday. Last Friday, after I found out that I couldn't return my lemon, I called Dell and finally got somewhere. They were sending parts to fix it! The guy came by my work on Monday and worked his magic. Read the blog post here.


Tuesday. Spent most of the day at the Missourian busy, and stayed longer than I expected to make sure that everything was ready to hand the reins over to Meg. Originally, I had planned to leave early to drive up to KC, but in the end, I chose to drive up on Wednesday. This is what the Missourian looks like during Thanksgiving break. There's a few people there, mostly over at the print desk, but hardly any people.

Love This Picture

Just wanted to include this picture on my blog, because I absolutely love it. It's by my friend, Mike, featuring his dog, Indy. I met them via Flickr and he has always been really great about giving me feedback on my images. This image makes we want to take my boys for a romp "among the fens and spinneys, when the twilight bathed the hedgerows like a lambent flame..." (that's a throwback to this awesome Frasier episode. If you'd like to see the script, click here.)

A Family Group Thanksgiving

Here's some selects from our family group Thanksgiving celebration. (Doesn't plate look good? Yes, yes it was.) We held it the week before Thanksgiving at the Herbolds' house, so that everyone would be there and this year, we actually *had* Thanksgiving fixin's. Last year made me a little sad because we had something like soup and chili. It really didn't feel like a Thanksgiving celebration. It more felt like just another family group gathering where we ate something (just like always).


I really liked this picture of Darce because I like how satisfied she is with the display of the table.

It's a Beautiful Day...

It is a very beautiful day. While it's a slow day at the Missourian, it's a wonderful day in laptop land. Last Friday, I contacted Dell because the laptop I purchased at Tiger Tech would do all kinds of funky things that were really frustrating - like a magically jumping cursor for no apparent reason; a finicky touchpad which, according to its mood, may or may not recognize my finger; a USB 1394 port which refuses to recognize my external hard drive, and an eSATA port which sometimes recognizes my external hard drive if the mood strikes it right and I don't move the entire time I'm interacting with the drive...


Wonderful Dell client infrastructure representative David Merrifield came to The Missourian and disassembled my laptop, replaced the mother board, key board, and something else that I forgot the name of. He was kind enough to let me photograph him at work so I got some cool innards of my computer pictures.

Project 365 - Week 33

Week 33. Celebrate Good Times.


Monday. It's actually a picture from Sunday, but I got one of my migraines and didn't think about taking a picture. And I loved this picture of Daniel being goofy watching people play the Kinnect.


Tuesday. Shawn came over and hung out with me and the boys. I've had a special place in my heart for him ever since I taught him in kids class. He can be so hard on himself and I wanted to do something to help him feel special. He really liked playing with and brushing the boys. And we ate mostaccolli. Monique brought him a sandwich and salad, and I did make him eat it, but we ate the pasta first.

Grammer Luvers of the World Untie

So eye was trying to fined out weather a reeder's correction:

"a mostly sycophantic media..." As a plural, the noun "media" cannot take a singular article.

was correct. It wus extremely dificult to fined my answer.

Serching four 'adjective agreement with media' I found lots of foreign language sights, their two teach me about grammer.

I tryed 'modifying collective nouns' and found things like The GrammarBook.com's discussion of homonyms, CliffsNotes.com's discussion of plural adjectives, Fun with Words: Collective Nouns, and Collective Nouns courtesy of a sight in Grate Britain.
Eye also came across this won:

Somehow, Eye also found: Russian lesson modules MasterRussian.com. While I dew love my Russian, that has nothing two dew with what I'm searching four...

I came across this list of -isms and -eses from YourDictionary.com. Did ewe no that laconism is the tendency two ewes few words two express a grate deal rather than beeing inflicted with the curse that turns ewe into a werewolf?

The University of Wisconsin-Madison provided a rousing detail of subject-verb agreement.

During my search, I came across a lesson four building a better vocabulary. I also discovered that their is a 'Royal Order of Adjectives' which delineates what order ewe list different kinds of adjectives. I'd never heard of such a thing.

The order of the adjectives is as followed:

1.Determiner- a, an, her, five, many, much several etc.
2.Opinion - pretty, ugly, smart, cheap, etc.
3.Size - big, fat, thin, tall, large, small etc.
4.Shape - circle, square, tall, short etc.
5.Age - old, young 10 years, a year, a week, new etc.
6.Color - yellow, green, pink etc.
7.Origin - American, English, Asian,Middle Eastern, African, European, Chinese etc.
8.Material - cotton, wood, plastic, cloth, glass, gold etc.
9.Purpose/Qualifier - hat box, sleeping bag, computer table, safe island, football field

And something I've never really encountered: English irregular adjectives.

Eye eventually got closer to an answer with:

English Mistakes Are Welcome
The Grammar Slammer!
Hyper Grammar

And I think eye came to this conclusion (after looking at a couple of dictionary definitions). Because the media was used a collective singular noun, the correction maid bye the reader was incorrect.

Project 365 - W32

Week 32.


Another day where I worked a lot at the Missourian, so I decided to take a picture of the light switch in my room. It's really meant for the bathroom (where it matches a cup, soap pump, towels, and shower curtain), but I was missing a cover, so I put it in my bedroom, instead.


Tuesday. One of those odd things you find campus. I never thought I would see a club devoted to hula hooping, especially with a boy involved. He was seriously good, too. I was walking by to go to a CPOY judging and saw them and thought, "How odd." I also thought, "well, I guess my assumption that hula hooping is good exercise is wrong" because more than one of them did not have muscle tone and were just a little bit overweight.

Project 365 - W31

Week 31. Republicans everywhere!


Had my first orientation meeting for traveling abroad in Brussels, Belgium. Now I'm stressing about my finances, because the scholarship I hope to be getting will (max.) only cover about 1/4th of the cost. I'm kinda stressing about this semester, too - some of the expenses related to this program have put a drain on what I've budgeted for the semester and I'm trying to not worry that my bank account will last. I really hope the financial stuff I've tried to arrange will work out. I really want to leave for Brussels not having to worry about how I'm going to support myself.


Tuesday. Midterm Elections. I spent the evening covering 2 watch parties. Brian asked for volunteers to help with the coverage and led to me first attending Laura Nauser's (pictured) watch party. The Republicans, unfortunately, ended up winning alot of the seats that they were running for (Nauser was one of the exceptions to this, though). It was really interesting overhearing the conversations, since I am not a Republican and pretty much disagree with most of what Republicans stand for. But the watch party was interesting to be there for. We (me and other photographers) transmitted pictures from the field back to the newsroom. Many of my pictures made it into the slideshow for the Missourian. I almost made the front page pic with this picture, but Sarah got a better one.

Jump! Jump!

So at church today, after a morning of teaching kids' class (1 & 2 grade), I was standing around the fellowship hall and was struck with an idea: some of the kids were jumping off this carpeted platform and I thought it would be fun to catch them in air. These are the pictures.

Participants: Reece & Jace, Corey & Kaylie, Shawn & Vannie, and Garrett.


It looks like he's taking a dive off the platform...


Falling through the air...

Project 365 - W30

Week 30. "Wonder twin powers, activate!"


Acting goofy at Bible Talk. I almost used the picture of Monique dressed like she's from 19th century Scotland Yard, or channeling Jessica Fletcher, but I liked this picture of Corey better.


To save on money, my roommate, Tracy, moved in with some other friends of ours (a married couple with a big house/furnished basement). So, it's just me and the boys in the house again. This is the orts she left behind (with part of Cullen in the picture, too).

Picture Story: Kasey Ryan

One of the other stories that I thought about submitting, but ran out of time to do so, was on Kasey Ryan, a recently-divorced woman who was embarking on several new beginnings in her life: beyond being newly single, she was opening a new restaurant and had recently gotten baptized into a new faith. This picture story highlights her journey:


Kasey Ryan unpacks some of her glassware as she works to ready her new business on Sept. 24, 2009. Recently divorced, Ryan recently decided to open a restaurant as an extension of her catering business as a means of supporting her family of 4 children.


Ryan (right) scrubs a window clean as her friends from her church group help clean and organize in preparation for her restaurant's opening in 2 weeks. The restaurant will be an expansion of Ryan's catering business.

Picture Story: Motherhood, Second Time Around

Pictures I submitted as part of a picture story featuring Tammy Kelliehan, a 41-year-old grandmother caring for her five grandchildren. Her daughter had health issues and became overwhelmed after the birth of a second set of twins, giving her 5 children 5 and under, so Tammy took them in.


A brief respite for Tammy as the two sets of twins guzzle their juice. From left: Keyah, Eric, Erykah, Tammy, and Kylah.


Tammy herds the twins away from the front door. They were attempting to go outside and join their "Papaw" as he was mowing the grass.

Project 365 - W29

Week 29. The week of Homecoming.


This is a picture of the stupid tickets I got on Monday. I really resent the lady who gives the tickets. She does the parking meter rotation around Lee Hills Hall *twice* a day and this day, I got 2 tickets. It wouldn't irk me so much, nor cause me to curse her under my breath (and I know it's a *she* because I've seen her), if I had not *paid* the meter. Lately, she has been inconsistent in when she does her loop, so this day, when I went out to pay the meter in the afternoon, saw a ticket on my car and thought that I had missed that second pass. But *no!* It was a ticket from earlier in the day when she came around about an hour after she normally does. And since the meter only allows you 2 hours at a time... So, 2 tickets. And you'd *think* that once you got a ticket for an expired meter, that they couldn't refine you. But no, Columbia regulations say they can do it on the hour after that meter expires.


The Bolls invited us for dinner and I got this picture. Cullen is a big cuddler. Anyone who leans back like this, and Cullen takes it as an invitation for him to come and cuddle. Even though Riley is Paul's favorite (because of the goofy noises he makes), he's decided that he likes Cullen, too.

Picture Story: Blood Donor Dogs

One of the picture stories that I submitted to CPOY was about the dogs who donate blood for patients of MU's Veterinary Hospital. I interviewed Matt Haight, the coordinator for the program.


Blondie the greyhound peers out of her kennel at the University of Missouri's College of Veterinary Medicine on Nov. 12, 2009. Blondie and her four kennel mates provide blood for transfusions for the College hospital's patients.


Matt Haight, the coordinator for the blood donor dog program at the University of Missouri's College of Veterinary Medicine, takes some of the greyhounds out for a run and chasing the ball on Dec. 2, 2009. Besides times like this, the dogs are walked twice daily by volunteers.

An Idea for a Photo Essay

I was looking at pictures today and came across this one:


Photo by Uli Seit for the NY Times
which inspired an idea for a photo essay. This is a picture from The New York Times "The Week in Pictures for Nov. 27, 2009." An image of Sarah Gellert, 99, in her apartment. Gellert exhausted her savings paying for 24-hour home care and now receives assistance from the Jewish Association for Services for the Aged, an organization supported by the NY Times Neediest Cases Fund.

Looking at this image, I am reminded of the Neediest Cases that the Post-Dispatch used to feature every year around Christmas time. I was also struck by her age, and hence, my idea:

To do a photo essay on local elderly people, people in their 90s.

Project 365 - W28

Week 28. Passport application away!


Took this picture during editing. I really appreciate how Tim walks to the beat of his own drum. He's really witty, too. Here, he is modeling his new rain gear. Well, he was taking it off so I wouldn't get a picture of him modeling the rain gear.

I don't know what it is, but Mondays can be really crazy. That's the day that I work at the Missourian as a Photo Editor from 9 to 4:30. And today was just really stressful. I mean, I don't normally let someone who's touchy get to me, where I am kind of snarky back, but I did today.

Project 365 - W27

Week 27. Over halfway done! And only one picture of the boys.


Okay - if you can't tell what this is, it's geese standing/sitting on the frozen pond/lake by my friend, Shawn's, house. I was driving to bible talk and I saw them. I didn't have time to stop, but they were still there when I was driving back. I didn't get out of my car, because I didn't want to scare them, but I used my zoom lens to get a closer picture.


This Sunday, we are having a special Song and Praise service at church, and we have been working on a new song, "Abba Father." Written by Sherwin Macintosh, it is, of course, tough, because the stuff that he writes is just tricky. I mean, it has this really bizarre, unnatural rhythm at the beginning of it. That just the women sing while the men sing 'oh.' (And the kicker is, when Chia-Wei heard it performed at the Leadership Conference, they sang it differently than how it was written - with Sherwin directing, no less. But CW decided not to try and rewrite the notes so that it sounded like how it was performed. So we get to struggle over it. This picture is taken at practice, as we are trying to learn our parts. I decided on this one, because it struck me as amusing, Phillip lying on the floor, trying to learn how to not move his shoulders when he breathes. It's not the best picture, but it captures the moment.

Editing the MU Football Game

ELISA DAY/Members of the Tiger's Lair file into Memorial Stadium before the game against Colorado on Saturday, October 9, 2010. || I thought this image was pretty cool (which is why I took the picture). I'd never seen it, when the Lair piles into the stadium. And I loved how, as they filled in, they made an upside-down M (for Mizzou).

Good grief! Now that was an experience. One frustrating experience. One stressful experience. But an experience that I'm glad I have had, if for nothing else, to be able to say that I can competently do it.

This past Saturday, I arrived at the Missourian at 2 pm to get our ducks in a row before heading over the Memorial Stadium for the 6 pm game against Colorado. (I didn't want to be there at 2 (rather 3), but Brian and Caitlyn (the sports photo editor) felt like this was a good idea, so that "it wouldn't be stressful." We would be able to catch the shuttle and get there and get settled with plenty of time to spare.) The Colorado game was 'kind of' a big deal because, after this season, Colorado is leaving the Big 12 to go to the Pac 10. I was feeling a little uneasy about the whole thing, because sports photography is not my favorite thing. But it was me and 3 photographers out to cover football.

A Few of My Entries for CPOY

CPOY, or the College Photographer of the Year competition, was founded by Cliff and Vi Edom in 1945. It's one of my favorite things about attending the master's program at MU. More than 600 students from 130 colleges and universities participate in the hopes of getting a nod. But what I really love about it is getting to hear the judges, well-known professionals in the field, discuss the works submitted and the field in general. Last year's judges included Barry Locher, Seth Gitner, Nicole Frugé, Lara Solt and Zach Wise. I walk away from every category's judging with little nuggets to apply to my own craft. And ideas for projects that I'm interested in doing.

The deadline for entries was October 5th at 11:59:59 pm. So, when I was working on my submission, I was one of those people who was trying to upload at the last minute and who overwhelmed the system. It was really frustrating. I kept getting these errors and my images wouldn't load, and then I couldn't submit them, because I advertently didn't get my permission code. So at 12 midnight, I surrendered to the fact that I had nothing entered in CPOY this year. Which was a bummer, because I had some stuff this year that I really liked. But I was at peace with the whole thing. I mean, I could feel frustrated because it always seems to happen where I just need 1 more hour, despite how I plan...

But then today, I checked my e-mail and discovered that I had until 11:59:59 pm on October 6th to submit my images. I wasn't sure if that meant submitting what was on the site or if I could upload more. But I figured that I would try it (the uploading part) and if it was out of bounds, then they just wouldn't allow it. When I was about to finish and submit my stuff, I discovered this message (right) on the home page. So it all was going to go! I didn't get to turn in everything I planned on, but I got to turn in some of what I wanted to. I feel very grateful that I was able to at least submit *something.* Fingers are crossed that I at least get a nod (like make it into the second round of judging). I have a 1:600 chance.

So here's some of the images I chose:

In the General News catergory:


To inaugurate the opening of a new and larger building, members of Columbia Second Chance's board cut a giant yellow ribbon, on April 20, 2010. A no-kill shelter, the new facility is twice the size of the animal rescue's previous location, enabling them to help more "second-hand" pets.

I Must Break You

NBC Photo: Carin Baer
Yes, it's a quote from the series premiere of Chuck, spoken by Dolph Lundgren in his best Dolph Lundgren voice.

Right now I am sitting here snuggling with my dogs, thinking about how God is good. How he works out all things for the best, no matter how crappy or frustrating or worrisome or embarrassing or vindictive or any other adjectives I might use. Those situations where you just want to punch someone really, really hard in the face so that they fly across the room backward, even those situations He works for the good. If nothing else, to teach us something.


It makes me grateful that I am in the world but not of it.

I am also feeling grateful that I can read/speak Russian, even if I'm not fluent. That's how I know the newspaper headline shown briefly said "Medical Catastrophe."


NBC Photo: Trae Patton
I really hope that I get to go to Brussels and then Москва (Moscow) and Санкт-Петербургского (Saint Petersburg) someday. It would be amazing to see Red Square and Эрмитаж (the Hermitage) and the statue of Peter the Great.