Adventures in Photojournalism

It's That Time of Year Again

2011-09-30T01:23:00.001-05:00

What time of year, you say? CPOY time.

For the uninitiated, that's College Photographer of the Year, an international competition for photography students that is in its 66th year. I've been lucky to attend three years of judging; I learn something every year I go.

This year, like all the years before, it was something that I procrastinated in choosing so that it came down to the absolute deadline before I turned them in. So my blood is pumping and the adrenaline is going and then I press submit.

But, unlike last year, I submitted things in several categories. I'm sure, like last year, I won't win anything, but that's okay. Really.

Single Picture Categories - 5 images *maximum* may be entered in each of these categories.

01 Spot News - A picture of an unscheduled or breaking event for which no advance planning was possible. Examples: fires, accidents or natural disasters. I submitted 5 pictures in this category.

02 General News - A picture of a scheduled political, social or cultural event for which advance planning was possible. Examples: demonstrations, staged promotional or political events and other daily news. Also submitted 5 pictures in this category.

03 Feature - A candid picture of a "found situation" containing strong human interest, a fresh view of the ordinary or humor. In all cases the dignity of the subject must be respected. Didn't do any of these this year. Nothing felt right.

04 Sports Action - A picture that increases understanding of and appreciation for sport through the capture of peak action and the competitive spirit. Nothing here (or the sports feature either). Unlike some, I don't really enjoy photographing sports.

05 Sports Feature - A sports-related picture with strong human interest or pictorial quality that celebrates the role athletics play in the lives of athletes and fans. Examples: The joy of victory or agony of defeat, fan reaction and interaction, athlete portraits.

06 Portrait - A picture of a person that reveals the essence of the subject's character. Submitted 5 images.

07 Pictorial - A graphic image that expresses beauty, tension, harmony, chaos and other abstract concepts through composition, tonal and color relationships more than through human interaction. And I think I forgot to submit these ones. Of course, once the deadline has passed, you can't see what you've submitted, so I don't remember.

Multiple Picture Categories - All multiple picture story entries must include a story summary. There is a limit of 5 entries per category.

09 Domestic Picture Story - A narrative picture story or thematic essay photographed in your home country that either reports on significant events, celebrates life, portrays sport or explores environmental, social, economic or political topics. 8 photos maximum per story. I submitted 2 stories.

10 International Picture Story - A narrative picture story or thematic essay photographed in a foreign country that reports on significant events, celebrates life, portrays sport or explores environmental, social, economic or political topics. 8 photos maximum per story. I submitted 2 stories, both featuring protest demonstrations.

For All of You Who Think Dogs Are Stupid

2011-01-21T15:34:00.000-06:00

You should watch this video. It features Dr. Pilley and his dog, Chaser, whom he taught over 1,000 nouns, as well as the names of different verbs.

Impossible, you say? Well, Dr. Pilley bought Chaser when she was a puppy and "started to train her for four to five hours a day. He would show her an object, say its name up to 40 times, then hide it and ask her to find it, while repeating the name all the time. She was taught one or two new names a day, with monthly revisions and reinforcement for any names she had forgotten." In order to remember all the names Chaser had to learn, Pilley wrote the name on each toy with indelible marker. In three years, Chaser’s vocabulary included 800 cloth animals, 116 balls, 26 Frisbees and a medley of plastic items.

One of the questions that Pilley also wanted to tackle was whether a dog understands a verb, like fetch, separately from its objects. In other words: Did she think of her toys as items labeled fetch-ball, fetch-Frisbee, fetch-doll, or did she understand the word “fetch” separately? Pilley found the answer by teaching Chaser 3 different actions: pawing, nosing and taking an object. She was then presented with three of her toys and correctly pawed, nosed or fetched each one depending on the command given to her. “That experiment demonstrates conclusively that Chaser understood that the verb had a meaning,” Pilley said.

Some might argue that Chaser is merely looking at Pilley for the cue to the right answer (like the famous horse 'Clever Hans'). If you watch the video, however, Pilley is hidden behind a screen so as to not give any non-verbal cues to Chaser.

So take that, all you haters! Our dogs would understand more of what we were talking about, if we just took the time to try and communicate with them.

Quotes from the New York Times article, Sit. Stay. Parse. Good Girl!, on page D1 of the New York edition on January 18, 2011.
Both images by Cass Sapir/Nova Science Now.

I Am Not on "the Twitter" but I Do Love Betty White

2011-01-11T21:53:00.001-06:00

Unlike many of the people that I interact with everyday on campus, I do not Twitter. I find it, as well as constant updating of one's Facebook page, annoying. Why should I be sharing or interested in the minutia of people's lives? Who cares what you are about to eat - unless it's something really amazing? And why are you wasting your time on this when there are other more important things that you could be doing (like blogging)? (That last bit (about blogging) was tongue in cheek. Although this seems more like a diary (especially since I seem to be the only one who ever reads it).

I don't understand why the Millenials have embraced it, but my theory is that it gives them the illusion of connectedness and deep relationships without actually having them. 'I have 5000 friends on Facebook' means I am loved and valued. People follow me on Twitter means that I am interesting. And none of this means that either of these statements is true. Or that you actually have to interact with anyone. Someone offends you, just un-friend them, don't deal with the conflict.

Maybe I'm cynical. I just think about how all this new-fangled technology leads us to 'connect' with people, but never actually connect with them. Case in point: this is what my brother does with his winter vacation.

It's "Call of Duty: Black Ops."

He's got several people that he plays with online that he's never met and probably never will, but they're the people he actively tries to play with. I'm not objecting to his playing the game, because he doesn't neglect other things to do it and only plays it for about 2 hours at a time. I'm merely saying that he's developed this friendship with someone he's likely never to meet and he likes that disconnectedness.

Project 365 - Week 40

2011-01-10T14:25:00.074-06:00

Week 40. Hello, Maine!!! I do love you so.

Monday. I don't know why I really like this picture, but I do. It's my mom pumping gas (if you couldn't tell).

Tuesday. A picture of a very old cash register at the needlepoint shop that my mom goes to. This day, we also went out to the mall and mom bought me a few jackets to wear while over there, since that appears to be a European thing to do. Finding jackets is a bit challenging, since the current trend is cut off close to the waist, rather than the traditional length of around your hip.

Wednesday. Today, the family sat down and watched "2012" together. My brother, Alex, had never seen it. My parents kept laughing at all the catastrophe scenes, which I found really amusing, too. If you can't tell, this is the scene where Yellowstone's caldera is about to blow and the weird, pickle-eating, conspiracy nut, Woody Harrelson, is relishing being there as the world is about to end.

Thursday. A picture of my mom and step-dad. It actually turned out well. My mom does *not* photograph well. She will tell you that she typically looks like she had a stroke. My theory is that it's because it's not her 'real' hair color (which is dark brown).

Friday. Taking a picture with my Christmas present: a new Tamron lens. It's the same as the one I borrowed from Shannon Silvey, but I don't remember it acting the way that this lens is acting. I haven't used it outside, though, so we will see. I really would like to get a new camera, one with a higher ISO, because I really prefer not to use a flash.

Saturday. Another picture taken with the new lens. Still don't know if I like it. (The lens, not the picture. I like the picture.)

Sunday. What my brother does on his winter vacation: play "Call of Duty: Black Ops." And what do I do? Watch him play, since there's only 1 television in the house and I am basically housebound. I'm starting to get a little stir crazy since I'm pretty much doing nothing all day.

So I Love Sports, Just Not Photographing Them

2011-01-09T16:22:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure why I don't enjoy photographing sports. Maybe it's because I haven't practiced enough. Maybe it's because I don't have the right equipment (I need a better camera - as far as shot rate - and better lenses - like ones that can have an aperture of 1.4 or 2.8 and can zoom 200-300mm.). It could be that I don't really have any desire to shoot sports - which isn't a bad thing since there are plenty of people who love covering sports. And maybe it's because it just doesn't seem - with the exception of pictures like the one above (Kerri Strug) - stories of something meaningful beyond 'being a winner.'

Why did I think about this? I came across this article on Summer Olympics Top 10 Most Winning Moments.

Of the 10, the only one I don't remember is the one that happened in 1972: Mark Spitz winning 7 gold medals. Of the list of 10, the one I don't should be included is the basketball "Dream Team" in 1992, the year they changed the rules so that professionals could participate in the Olympics and players like Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, and Scottie Pippen were on it. How is that fair? It might have been before Jordan or Bird turned pro, but after? I don't care if other countries pay amateur athletes' expenses like rent and food, etc., it still doesn't seem right. And it cheapens those events for me, too (which is why I wasn't impressed). How is it any different than watching a pro game? Wow, they get to play on a different team for a little while... And it cheapens the achievements of all those US Olympians who *were* true amateurs and still won medals.

Like these guys.

I did also stumble on this gallery, which I found interesting. The best female athletes by state. I was a little irritated that they didn't make the same little list for men, but then I found this link: The 50 Greatest Athletes from Illinois. Of course, this list was created in 1999, so it's not exactly current. Which I guess is why the diss on Lance Armstrong - #50 from Texas, even though he did something that no other man in history has ever done - won 7 Tour de France victories, consecutively no less - and that includes the French. I wonder where they'd place him today. I may be biased, but that feat seems even more worthy of the top that Babe Didrikson Zaharias, who won five events at 1932 AAU track and field championships, then two weeks later took two Olympic gold medals, and as a pro golfer won 31 tournaments. She's pretty worthy, but Armstrong, I think deserves that honor. (As indicated with this SI list of biggest milestones for the 2000s.)

Project 365 - Week 39

2011-01-03T14:24:00.182-06:00

Week 39. Finished with Mary Street and off to Maine.

Monday. My niece, Allison, with Cullen. She has decided that he is her favorite. She also wanted to take him home with her, but that would definitely not be a good idea. Her dad, when he's mad, would traumatize Cullen like nobody's business. He's very sensitive and gets nervous when I'm mad, and I don't have an anger problem. I'm very grateful that Daniel and Kathryn offered to take him. I think it will be good for him, hanging out with Reece and Jace. Plus, being around Daniel I think will help him get over his slight nervousness around men.

I have to say, God worked it out really well as far as where my dogs are staying while I'm gone. Cullen's with the Smiths, where he will get to play with Georgie and the boys. Dudley's staying with Tammy in KC, where he gets to hang out with Jackson and a little girl (Elise) who loves to cuddle (and maybe he'll help Jackson to be less afraid of people). And Riley is staying with my dad and stepmom, where he gets to hang out with several dogs. My dad told me that he jumps up and sits with him often when he's watching TV. Thank you, God, for taking care of my boys. And thank you, everyone, for taking care of my boys!!!

Tuesday. I'm unloading suitcases from my car. The boys are watching me do it and waiting for me to come back inside. I won't actually get into those suitcases until right before I leave, but right now they contain some of the clothes I'm considering bringing to Brussels. I will eventually put clothes inside a briefcase and stick that in one of the suitcases. And, unfortunately, I didn't have enough room to bring my pillow with me. I just hope they have non-feather pillows, because I can't sleep on feathered ones.

Wednesday. The boys chilling on one of the two twin beds in the room I am staying it. It's interesting sleeping at night because everyone likes to sleep with me. It's been even more interesting since I've got a cold that's now settled in my chest and leads me to hack, hack, hack at night. And Riley has been extremely nervous the last couple of nights, so he doesn't let me sleep. I'd stick him in the garage, but it's below zero outside. He finally settles down when I 'watch TV' which means I watch Netflix on my phone. I don't know why that helps him calm down, but it seems to be the only thing that really works. Maybe it's because he thinks that if he really needs to, I'll be awake to let him out. I hate it - not because it keeps me awake (which I dislike) but because of the amount of stress it causes him.

Thursday. Back in Columbia. Taken after a very long day. I woke up around 6:30 and left KC around 8, which means I arrived in Columbia right around 10, and, save for a lunch break and a very short stop to eat something for dinner, I (along with my parents and niece) worked until around 8, and then I kept working until around 10. I am very grateful for my family's help because I would not have gotten it done without them in the time I had. All that's left is packing up a few more things, dropping off stuff at good will, taking boxes over to the storage space, taking out the garbage, and cleaning.

I took this picture because it illustrates how much Cullen and Riley are brothers: Riley lets Cullen rest his head on him anywhere, even on his head. They stayed like this for several minutes.

Friday. It may be December 31st, but the high was 62* that day. I decided to take a break from finishing everything and take the boys out to the dog park for an hour or two. There were lots of dogs there, so they got to socialize a lot. Cullen, for some reason, hung out with me most of the time. He usually tags right behind Riley (as in this picture) but most of the time, it was Duds following Riley.

I was glad I got to take them to the park to have some fun before they went to stay with other people. I wanted them to have a really nice day before I didn't see them again for 4 months. I 'know' that dogs don't think like us, and they live in the moment, so maybe it was more for me, but I like to think of them being really happy before they went to stay with someone else.

I quit working around 9:30 (with just a little bit to go) to head out to the New Year's Eve party at the church building. That was really fun. I played Rock Band for the first time. The drums are hard!!! Especially when the line came up - coordinating my leg and my arms. And having to concentrate. It was a little better when I was really clean on the beat. My best score was 78%. However, I scored 100% on the singing part when we did "Eye of the Tiger." Can you tell I like to sing?

Later in the evening we played 'Killer Uno,' a variation of traditional 'Uno,' where you take turns but with a free-for-all. Basically, the traditional color or number applies *when it's your turn,* but the rest of the time, if a number in your hand comes up, you can play it, even if it's not your turn. Play continues according to the last person to play. And what's even more crazy: the face cards (like the Draw 2s and the Skips) are cumulative, so if someone plays a Draw 4 and three more are played, whoever ends up drawing the cards would have to draw 16 cards. It was a blast. I didn't realize how much I missed playing cards with Melissa until we were playing, because she talks a little smack, but not in a mean way.

Saturday. One day, I think it would be cool to do a photo book on how America decorates their houses in celebration of Christmas. And this year, it seemed like there were tons of ornate loaded houses out. I wish I'd been able to go around and photograph, but with the move and everything, I was so exhausted at the end of the day, I just went home and went to bed. On the way home from the New Year's Party, I took some pictures of Christmas lights. Went to bed, headed back over to the house and finished cleaning the floors and got out of dodge. I should have taken a picture of the house empty, but I am so glad to not to ever have to go back there again (where there's a *hole* in the wall where the pipe for the kitchen sink comes in, where you can see outside, and even though I mentioned this to my landlord, he didn't do anything about it, or any of the other little problems while I lived there. And the mice - I did mention the mice, right? Just got some traps, rather than an exterminator. They probably came in through several of the holes in the wall...)

Sunday. A picture taken while on my flight to Maine. I thought about using one of the pictures I took of ridiculous LaGuardia Airport, but I decided to use this instead. It's nice and serene :) And LaGuardia Airport IS RIDICULOUS. I wasn't excited to be flying in there for my layover, because it's one of those airports that gets delays quite frequently. And when we get there, we have to walk outside (not so bad) but then we have to walk up about 30 steps to get to the main terminal. So I get to lug this heavy bag - heavy because I've packed for 4 months in Brussels - up the stairs. In the main terminal, it's extremely crowded and the food is lame and over priced. I ended up spending almost $10 ($9.47) for a hamburger and french fries. The hamburger was pretty good but the fries were not worth $3.95 plus tax. I was sitting there, tired (since I only got about 4 hours worth of sleep, due to figuring out what exactly I wanted to pack), and I needed more water. And isn't it convenient that the water fountain doesn't work. So I ask the flight crew sitting at the table, "Would it be illegal for you to watch my stuff while I go get some more water, since we don't know each other?" One of the guys says, "What's your name?" "Elisa." "I'm Michael. Now we know each other." We had a good laugh and I went and got my water.

I then walked back to my gate (5A) and looked for a place to sit down. I also looked for a place to plug my phone in. I found a plug and these two nice young 20 somethings decided to sprawl out across the floor and completely ignore me when I asked how long they had been charging their phone. Don't you love it when people have manners? They took up the space that about *5* people could sit. I went and found another plug to charge my phone and the socket was so loose it wouldn't charge. But it would show up as charging my computer, so I started charging my phone through my computer.

And how ridiculous is LaGuardia? They had 3 flights leaving through gate 5A within 10-15 minutes of each other. And when you go through your gate, you don't even go directly to your plane. No, you get to ride a bus to your plane. And I didn't even get to sit down. About halfway to the plane, we stopped and waited for about 5-10 minutes. Isn't that just great?

When I got to the airport, I got to wait for about 15 minutes for Alex to arrive. As usual, my parents (mom and stepdad) decided to hang out at home instead of coming to meet me. I pretty much ate dinner, took a shower and went to bed. And *WOW* did my body hurt. Everywhere. It hurt to move. Glad this week is over.

Project 365 - Week 38

2010-12-27T14:24:00.069-06:00

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.

The study also included this 'distractor' commercial, which I really liked. It's Michael Jordan talking about all the times and ways that he failed while playing (missed over 9000 shots, lost almost 300 games, missed the game winning shot 26 times) the game and then concludes with "I've failed over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed." I love that. (I also love this video with Larry Bird that he did back in the day. They did a follow up featuring Charles Barkley. And apparently, they updated it with LeBron James and Dwight Howard, where Larry Bird takes the Big Mac at the end, and they don't know who he is!)

Wednesday. This is what I look like after killing myself trying to get my house finished being packed. That last 20% of stuff just won't get done. And this is what I look like when I haven't slept more than about 6 hours a night and am sick with a cold on top of all of that. I just want for it to be over.

Thursday. This is where and how Duds prefers to sleep when we're over at the Bolls. (And no snoring either.) I've dubbed it 'Duds' Chair,' even though I don't own it.

Friday. Leaving for Kansas City today. We got a bunch of snow last night - which was encouraging to think that it will be a white Christmas. Still not finished packing up the house but I need a break to at least start to feel better. I hate that my packing has cut into time that I was planning on spending in KC before going to Maine and then onto Brussels.

Saturday. Riley in the hallway.

Sunday. Riley outside. I just think that he is one handsome dog. I will miss him when I am abroad. Him and the rest of my boys.

Project 365 - Week 37

2010-12-20T14:24:00.059-06:00

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.

Thursday. Riley snuggled into my pillow as I prepare for my move and for going to Brussels. One of the things that I did was copy some of my movies to take with me. Unfortunately, in all of the moving, that bunch of movies somehow got moved somewhere so no movies, except Netflix, for me while in Brussels. (And my brother tells me that I may not even be able to access my Netflix account while I'm in Brussels, either.)

Friday. Pre-teens being goofy at a baptism Friday night. It's so weird to see them growing up, since I've know all of them since they were young, Sammy (in the middle) the longest.

Saturday. A picture grab from a preview at the premiere of Tron: Legacy. A good follow-up to the original, which we watched earlier this week. We didn't go opening night because Daniel and Kathryn couldn't find a babysitter until Saturday. I really liked the movie, although I severely object to having to pay and extra $2.50 every time I go to a movie to get the glasses. They said it was because of the projector, but all I can say is, 'yeah, right.' It was a little weird looking at computer-generated Jeff Bridges, since he didn't quite look real; his face was too smooth and sometimes didn't move quite right. But it worked if you bought into the idea that he's a computer-generated program. Daniel and I had some debate over the ending of the movie, though. Which is one of the reason that I love Daniel and Kathryn - we can have those geeky kind of conversations.

Sunday. Cullen 'asks' me to pet him while I pack up books to be moved. Who knew that packing books would take SO LONG. I ended up staying up all night on Saturday trying to get everything ready for the guys to come and move it on Sunday. That's why this picture was taken at 2 in the morning. I ended up leaving a bunch of books and things in the spare bedroom to do later.

Project 365 - Week 36

2010-12-13T14:23:00.107-06:00

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.

Thursday. An outtake from the Christmas pics that I took for my friends, Jason and Rachel Touchatt. I also love their girls and Hannah really loves me :) This evening, I babysat Hannah as everyone else went to see the Stephens College production of "Meet Me in Saint Louis." Rachel told me that as soon as Hannah heard I was coming over, she was completely fine with them going out, instead of giving them problems about it (she's a nice willful child). We spent a good part of the evening over at my house letting Hannah pick which doggie she wanted to bring over to her house. She ended up choosing Riley, but she went back and forth between all three of them.

Friday. The latest "Chronicles of Narnia" movie happened and I went to see it with Daniel (pictured) and Kathryn Smith, and Chia Wei Young. I almost picked a picture from our visit to a Thai restaurant. That was memorable for how I scalded my tongue and lips by accidentally eating a fresh jalapeno hidden in a sandwich. No where in the menu description did it mention jalapeno as part of the sandwich. I tried eating some bread that *wasn't* touched by the jalapeno and it still was burning hot. I asked for milk and they didn't have any. In desperation, I went into the bathroom and scrubbed my lips and tongue (twice!) with (bathroom) soap to try to abate the oil that was burning them off. Didn't quite work but worked enough. And Voyage of the Dawn Treader was really good.

Saturday. I loved this picture of Shawn. He was flexing his muscles at me during out annual Christmas banquet. I stayed up pretty much all night, working on two videos for the banquet, including the annual review in pictures. And, even though I've used programs like Audacity and Soundslides many times and never had any issues, the Slideshow Banquet Demon decided to complicate things and it came down to the wire for me to get the annual review finished. STRESS!!! But I finished it and people were happy with the outcome. I mostly got pictures of the dancing. But I got this picture of Shawn. He's a cool kid.

Sunday. A picture of my boys saying hello after I returned home. Riley rolls around on the bed and 'arrr's, Cullen's trying to get Riley to play, and Duds waits for me to get a little closer to jump on me to have me pet him.

Project 365 - Week 35

2010-12-06T14:23:00.091-06:00

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.

Thursday. Tracy came over and hung out (as I sported yet another migraine). We watched a movie together. Notice the non-Ionic Breeze air purifier in the background. My Ionic Breeze just stopped working. And because I am a poor college student, I could not afford to replace it, so I pulled out my older air purifier whose fan you can hear when it blows. Even when I lived in an apartment with a *bad*
mold problem, I didn't clean my purifier nearly as much as I did living in this house. What movie were we watching? Knight and Day, a movie that I absolutely loved, partially because of how polite Tom Cruise's character is, and partially because Cameron Diaz was a real person in it. As an aside, I love how Dudley will go and flop in someone's lap when they lean backwards. In his brain, it's an invitation to cuddle with him.

Snuggly Cullen. He just loves to put his head on people.
Friday.

Saturday. Duds is a goof ball. The temperature has dropped enough that it's time for my down comforter. And Duds decided that burying himself in it, as I try to put on the cover and then put it on my bed, was a fabulous idea. And, like always, when I tell him off, he dances about the bed and settles somewhere else. I let him be for a bit and took this pic.

Sunday. I happened upon Shannon taking pictures for the annual Christmas banquet. Since it was my favorite sets of twins (plus the beautiful Kayla) I decided to shoot over his shoulder and I got this picture. There were some really funny ones - especially with Keyah reacting to them telling her to smile - but I liked this one because of how Keyah and Kylah were looking at each other.

I Love Psych

2010-12-02T21:47:00.343-06:00

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...

The name of the town. Dual Spires.
The use of the original cast - although not in the same roles, but roles connected to their old parts.

Dana Ashbrook as Bob Barker, the original Bobby Briggs.
Sherilyn Fenn as Maudette Hornsby, the original Audrey Horne
Sheryl Lee as Dr. Donna Gooden, the original Laura Palmer
Ray Wise, as Father Peter Westley, the original Leland Palmer
Robyn Lively, as Michelle Barker, the original Lana Milford
Lenny von Dohlen, as Sheriff Andrew Jackson, the original Harold Smith
Catherine Coulson, as Woman with Wood, the original Log Lady

"A tiny town that we haven't heard of" out in a secluded part of Washington/California. "This is one secluded town..."
The delicious goodness of a dessert and drink that is the best ever! (Dual Spires = cinnamon pie; Twin Peaks = apple pie. Dual Spires = apple cider; Twin Peaks = coffee) Made by the head proprietress of the local diner.

The funky music that was very reminiscent of the music from the original series -- although I missed that theme music (owned the single for it). It was very hauntingly beautiful -- as was the opening sequence of the T.P. series. (For a better quality version of the opening sequence, although you have to sit through 30 seconds of commercials for this one. And here's the link to the single that included the lyrics, Julee Cruise, "Falling.") Julee Cruise performed the special T.P. version of the theme song and I loved how they made it usual weird things like the opening to T.P. (It's another reason I love Psych, how they will change the theme song according to the episode.) My favorite part of the whole sequence: Henry (Corbin Bernsen) peering over the boat in a really creepy way... Also loved the random horse in town which reminded me of another cooky town, Cicely, Alaska (Northern Exposure).
"Something's off about this place... They keep looking at me like I'm the first black man they've seen." (I don't remember a single black person on the series, although there were several Native Americans...) It cracks me up that the kid asked Gus if he was Frederick Douglass.
The Sawmill Diner, complete with jukebox. I don't remember the name of the original diner, but the town was a milling town and the opening sequence was the sawmill at work.

Dana Ashbrook, as Robert "Bob" Barker, is the proprietor of the diner. He's married to Michelle. In the original series, his character, Bobby, was having an affair with Shelley, the waitress at the diner. And one of the better touches, he was sporting the white hair that Laura's father developed after discovering her death. I would have really loved if Madchen Amick had played the wife, since she was Bobby's secret girlfriend, Shelley, in T.P., but I was happy to see Robyn Lively.
Sheriff named after a dead president. Dual Spires = Andrew Jackson; Twin Peaks = Harry S. Truman. And the sheriff was played by creepy Harold, Lenny Von Dolen, who was creepy as the sheriff.
Mayor Douglas Fur. USA noted that this part was originally planned for David Lynch to play, but they didn't approach him "for fear that he would pull the entire episode." I don't know why he would be such a curmudgeon about it, because I was a huge fan of the show and loved watching this send-up - partially because of how it highlighted all the ways the show was quirky, odd, and clever.

Paula Merral is an anagram for Laura Palmer. Just like Laura, she was a cheerleader, volunteered, was seeing a counselor who remarked that she didn't fear death," and was found wrapped in plastic. Another aside - that counselor had the same kind of bird that Laura's counselor did in T.P.
Gus's name was Lodge Blackman - not only is Gus a black man, but the Black Lodge was a place in Twin Peaks where ne'er-do-wells did nefarious deeds.
The way the body of the supposedly straight-laced head cheerleader was found: wrapped in plastic. Of course, in the episode, her best friend, Jack, ("the Ducky") had found the body and wrapped her so they wouldn't "see her like that." And the coroner was played by the original Laura Palmer, Sheryl Lee. She got to look down at her 'dead' body.

The way her adopted father, who played Laura's legitimate boyfriend in the original, mourned over her dead body as the mood music played. (Although Ray Wise did it better in the original. They really tried, but Ray, as Laura's father, Leland, was so gut-wrenchingly distraught. It was right at the beginning, and even though you didn't know the characters, you cared that this girl was dead and her father was upset. Side note -- I predicted who the killer was and I was right. I didn't know about Bob the demon, but the killer was just off in how he acted.)
Another bit of trivia: James Roday (Shawn Spenser on the series) helped write this episode! And T.P. is his favorite TV show.
"The earth is soft and moist." A random statement by the show's Native American deputy. T.P. had lots of random statements and a Native American deputy.

Gus as a sympathetic crier just like Sheriff Truman.
"An angel sent from heaven" - to describe their new station manager in regards to SBPD's donut selection, but I seem to remember Agent Cooper describing Norma that way after he ate some of her pie.
Shawn referring to Juliet as Detective O'Hara and himself as Shawn Spencer - much akin to Agent Cooper's affinity for naming people and being named.
The legitimate boyfriend, Randy Jackson, who dresses and wears his hair exactly like Bobby Briggs in T.P. (I do have to say that Dana Ashbrook wore it much better than this kid.) His father is Sheriff Andy Jackson - in T.P., Bobby's father was a high-ranking general and not the town sheriff. Harry Truman wasn't ever married.

The log lady (who had a reason to be carrying the log beyond the fact that it talked to her). And when she talked, it wasn't to the log but to a boy. That was very clever!
The fact that Paula had a secret boyfriend - Randy (the Bobby character). Also a little different than T.P. because Laura's secret boyfriend wasn't Bobby Briggs, but James Hurley. But they tied it back by having R & J being her 2 love interests.

Town librarian, Maudette, was seductress Audrey Horne. Her father owned the sawmill. I loved how she sucked 'seductively' on her Cherry Coke. "Isn't cherry the best." Miss Audrey Horne once ate a cherry seductively for Agent Cooper, tying the stem in a knot in her mouth.
The librarian popping up, looking through the stacks at them, just like Audrey used to look through secret peepholes in her home. Plus the fact that Maudette was spying on people and trying to figure out their secrets just like Audrey did.
Paula had a secret hidden diary.
"I like to dance all night long." said Sherilyn Fenn, whose character, Audrey, did this iconic dance on T.P. It was iconic because it was so random and yet not something you could take your eyes off of.
Jack Smith - Paula's best friend and confidant, who lip synced to old records with her. It seems to me that Laura did something similar with James Hurley.

Ray Wise, who played Laura's father, Leland Palmer, reprising his priestly role on the show. And an homage to Leland's transformation, Wise's character's hair turned white, too.
Randy - our suspect - does wood work, another throw back to the sawmill in T.P., complete with slow motion turning blade like in the opening credits.
They get taken to a cabin that the inside of looks a lot like the lodge that Laura used to sneak off to, and the Black Lodge.

The ending scene - Jack dressed in the midget's red suit, dancing to weird music from the jukebox. He wasn't nearly as creepy as the dwarf who did it on T.P. - it still creeps me out to think of it.
"That's a damn fine cup of [cider]." And Lassiter cocked his arm just like Cooper did when drinking.
The guy ordering the pie appeared in the Black Lodge, too.
The other weird dancing in the diner (just like how Audrey danced). And how Leland/Bob danced with their dead daughter's picture.
Randy barking at something. I was waiting the whole episode for it. It's one of those things that I've always remembered from the show, Bobby barking menacingly at James when they were in jail. Of course, Randy was barking at dogs, but he was barking still.

Project 365 - Week 34

2010-11-29T15:27:00.054-06:00

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.

Wednesday. With this picture, I was trying to get a shot of how weird this truck was decorated, but instead I got a shot of me in sunglasses. Sometimes, I want to take these pictures, but I don't want to call attention to myself to do it.

Thursday. Thanksgiving Day in Kansas City. For last Christmas, my mom decided to get my dad a book by their friend, Father Mike Diocchi. I ordered from Amazon.com so that Dad wouldn't know anything about it and even though UPS showed the book delivered, I never found it on my doorstep. I tried to get a replacement, but that didn't pan out. But in September (I think it was), I discovered that the book *had* been delivered and the delivery driver had 'cleverly' stuck the book in the tub that sits by my front door. So, I brought the book up to give to my Dad over Thanksgiving. It was perfect timing, because Father Mike was there and he could hand autograph it. This is his overjoyed, surprised reaction to seeing that we bought Dad a book that he had written.

Black Friday. It's a holiday tradition that my mom and I go out on Black Friday and check out the sales. Of the many foolish things that I saw, I think this was the most ridiculous: a Snuggie for Dogs. Why does a dog need a Snuggie?

Saturday. The boys playing in my parents' yard. The Duds liked wandering around in it, too. Which surprised me, because normally, he doesn't like being outside, much less sniffing and exploring.

Sunday. A goofy face from my friend, Stacy.

Love This Picture

2010-11-29T14:13:00.006-06:00

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

2010-11-25T15:49:00.000-06:00

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.

A picture of Monique directing the kids in how many Hostess Chocolate Donuts they can eat as they entertained themselves upstairs. They were quite loud for part of it - jumping from the couch to the floor. I had to go upstairs more than once. It's 'amazing' how kids will do what they know they shouldn't and then act surprised when you call them on it. Or try to tell you that it wasn't them.

The family group praying before our meal.

I like this picture of Shawn and Jim partially because of all the yummy food and partially because of the moment. If you haven't figured it out, I really like photography that captures a moment/something.

Again, another moment. Although I wish that my shutter was faster!!! so that it wouldn't have been blurry. I like these moments between Kevin and Mason.

I thought one of these would have been good as part of The Missourian's Thanksgiving coverage, but evidently it's 'a conflict of interest' because I knew the people and was there at the event anyway and liked the church in question. Even though I was in no way promoting my church through my journalism, nor was I doing anything delineated as a fishy area by The New York Times or this article from Community.com. I didn't really care if the name of the church got mentioned or not - wouldn't that be the point of a conflict of interest? Self/organizational promotion? In fact, it felt a little weird that they did post the name of the church with the coverage. I'm not sure why. I guess because it just felt like a group of my friends getting together to celebrate together. (It was kinda cool the kick that Angie Herbold got out of hosting the thing and having a picture on the front page of the paper.)

A nice posed pic of Kevin and Sushila. I can't remember what they were drinking, but I think it was cocoa.

It's a Beautiful Day...

2010-11-24T23:49:00.000-06:00

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.

It amazes me that my hard drive (the blue-squarish thing) is about 2.5 x 3 inches and yet it holds so much.

That strap around his wrist is connected to that silver clamp. It's purpose is to provide a ground so that he doesn't damage the circuitry with an accidental static electricity discharge.

Merrifield was nice enough to show me how to remove my keyboard the next time some sort of debris gets stuck in there and canned air isn't cutting it. Also, now to remove the back so that I can clean the lint out of the laptop's fan - lots of dust bunnies and a few pieces of Cullen's fur in there.

It was so bizarre looking at my laptop disassembled. Thank you, David Merrifield, for your great work!

Project 365 - Week 33

2010-11-22T15:26:00.054-06:00

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.

Wednesday. We had our family group's Thanksgiving dinner tonight. And Sarah Midgorden came along to take pictures for the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving Day edition of the Missourian. It was so good! I had to take a picture of it. Angie Herbold got really excited about decorating the dinner table. It made me smile how almost giddy she got.

Thursday. I volunteered to help watch kids during Daniel and Kathryn's marrieds class. It was the last one of the session, and the participants were 'renewing their vows' for the last class. It was a cool idea. This is me goofing around with Jason and Rachel's daughter, Hannah. She got the hugest kick out of our pictures. We'd snap them and then she would laugh hysterically.

Friday. I got together with Jackie to discuss my project and then we went over to Tiger Tech to look at a computer that Jackie was thinking about getting her daughter for Christmas. After Tiger Tech, where I found out that I could no longer give back my lemon of a laptop, I was walking across campus and encountered these goofballs. They were jamming out to music and dancing like idiots. I'll never understand why people do things like this to draw attention to themselves.

Saturday. Today was the first day of Thanksgiving break and I was working as the photo editor for the Missourian. We discovered that Good Morning, America was at Shakespeare's Pizza, because they were featuring them in a contest for the best college town grub. The one photographer working for break was out on assignment and the reporter didn't think about submitting a photo request - so annoying and they seem to be doing that a lot this semester! -- so I popped down the street to get a decent image for the paper. The reporter took some but they were lame. And this was the image that I liked best from my shoot. I've decided that I really like editing, too.

Sunday. Shots from the church blood drive. I wanted to get a closer unique angle, but I wasn't allowed across the line and into their bubble.

Grammer Luvers of the World Untie

2010-11-15T09:39:00.004-06:00

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

2010-11-15T09:13:00.178-06:00

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.

Wednesday. I chose this picture because I liked how it turned out - Vince preaching (on the book of James) at Midweek. Vince is a hard guy to photograph because his skin is so dark. And I did this without a flash.

We were talking the other day about how MU's photoj program should features at least one class session focusing on how to photograph darker skinned individuals. Because it is challenging! I have it down just because I've had a lot of practice with it: Wale Aliyu, Monique Allen and her sons, Vonnie and Shawn, Chris and Camilia Brown, Nicole Conaway, Anthony and Joshua Evans, Jessica Fletcher, Shawn Fugate, First-grader Devin Graves, Vince Hawkins, Brittani and Gerald Fults, Robin Hawkins and Darce Nyboe, Keyah, Eric, Erykah, Kyla, and grandma, Tammy Kelliehan, Ken King, Greg and Debbie Newby (participating in a church Strongman competition), Darce Nyboe, Anne Omer, Maria Omondi, Maria Omondi, ShaJuanda Campbell, and Brianna Brooks, Ricardo Rique-Sanchez, Kyle Spears, Laurence Willis, and Sam Martin, Romanda Walker, Kyra Watson, Laurence Willis (and his wife, Erica).

Thursday. It's time for CPOY (College Photographer of the Year). I usually really love watching the judging, but this year, I kind of lost my enthusiasm when none of my submissions made it past the first round of judging. I was really bummed when neither of my photo stories made it - because I thought they were really good. Not topics you typically see featured. And looking at the winners/honorable mentions, I think they were at least as good as the ones that were noted. I mean, who gets a picture like this? I did really love Charles's story about Kelly Glossip. It was a really good story. But, I felt less enthusiastic about making it to everything. But this is a picture of the judging of the Portrait category. I did really like watching this category.

Friday. A shot of what I had to eat for most of Friday. I was on campus, working on things, and forgot to eat. I volunteered to work CPOY and got assigned to work calling 'In/Out.' By the time I realized I didn't eat, it was too late to go get something before I was due at CPOY. So I ate goldfish and cookies. Quite healthy, right? The judges really loved the Twizzlers, hence the pile of wrappers in the background.

Saturday. A picture taken after dark using time exposure. I think, if I remember, this was 16 seconds worth of exposure to get this picture. And me saying, "Stay. Stay. Stay." to Cullen to get him to hold still so that he wasn't a blur in the picture. It was fun sitting in the dark and letting my boys run around off leash.

Sunday. We had a 30th birthday party for my friend, Seth. This is Jim and Monique playing the new Kinect that is the next evolution of the Wii that Xbox 360 has come up with. "Your body is the controller." They were driving cars.

Project 365 - W31

2010-11-08T12:39:00.080-06:00

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.

Midweek at the Herbolds. No food today, as we are going to have Thanksgiving midweeks in two weeks. And it will be a real Thanksgiving this year (unlike last year - which was depressing). I am going to be making a cheery and pumpkin pie. Almost from scratch. I saw this pile of shoes by the front door and thought it looked cool.

Nothing really stands out for me from Thursday so here's a picture of me cuddling with Cullen - it's his favorite place to be, cuddling with someone, anyone.

This is a picture of the boys at the dog park. There were actually several dogs that they played with, with Dudley really taking a shine to this little dachshund, Lucy. (I loved how her tail was nearly as long/big as she was.) But he was running after some of the bigger dogs too. The boys had a blast, though, running around with several dogs.

Riley chilling on my bed. Yes, it's another dog picture, but I saw him and thought he looked so sweet, that my heart overflowed and I took this picture. He's lounging on a pile of clothes that I have washed and are awaiting folding to be put away. And he is fresh from a bath :)

Jump!Jump! - I got to teach my 1-2 graders (filling in for Tracy), which was a lot of fun - although they seemed a little more unruly than usual. After church, I decided to photograph some of them jumpping off a platform in the fellowship hall. More pictures of the fun here.

Jump! Jump!

2010-11-08T11:16:00.001-06:00

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...

Getting thrown off the platform...

Project 365 - W30

2010-11-02T23:27:00.049-05:00

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).

Cullen stretches on the bed. You might notice the pain killers on the bed - another one of those pesky headaches!

After the beat meeting was cancelled, I took the boys for a walk around campus and they posed with the brass Beetle Bailey. Getting them all to look at me was a challenge and a half. And Riley was particularly persnickety in refusing to look at the camera. I love how Duds always looks like he has a smile on his face. He just loves life, especially when he gets to go places and smell new things. Or gets to eat people food.

Friday morning critique of the week's work. How about that mass of work for the week?!! Tons of stuff homecoming-related. I was also really pleased with how my edit of Ally's stuff turned out for the front page of Tuesday's paper. I thought it was really eye-catching.

This Saturday, some of the citizens of Columbia attempted to break the Guinness Book of World Records' record for the most people gathered dressed as super heroes (over 1500 people). About 760 people attended the event. Christina Manolis and I did a portrait series for the Missourian and Vox. It was crazy how tired I was after it was all over. It was a long day (15 hours total). Putting together 2 slideshows made the day a lot longer (particularly because one of them was using Final Cut which *always* makes things so quick and simple). I was grateful that Erin had volunteered to help with editing the Nebraska game - I definitely don't think I would have gotten everything done if she wasn't there.

This is where I spent much of my Halloween. I woke up feeling very sick (nauseous) and spent most of the night with things coming out the other end. I missed the Halloween party - which is a bummer. I missed it last year, too. I was looking forward to seeing what everyone came dressed as. It's always fun.

Picture Story: Kasey Ryan

2010-11-01T21:23:00.002-05:00

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.

Ryan pauses from working in her restaurant to search for her ringing cell phone, on Sept. 24, 2009.

"Coming Soon: The Chef Connection" declares a recently hung sign on Ryan's storefront, alerting passersby that the space on 10th Street had been let and would soon be open for business.

Kasey Ryan prays with her new church family after an evening of working in her restaurant, on Sept. 11, 2009. From left: Nick Shelhamer, Camilia Rusher, Jarod Newland, Ryan, and Kim Olson. The group spent their Friday evening working on Ryan's restaurant.

Kasey Ryan smiles up at Rachel Touchatt as Kim Olson reaches for a towel, on Sept. 20, 2009. Touchatt and Olson helped to submerge Ryan during her baptism.

Ryan is momentarily overwhelmed with everything that she still has to do before her shop opens in 2 weeks, on Sept. 24, 2009. Ryan had paused to rest for a moment and to drink a bottle of root beer.

After cleaning in preparation for the upcoming restaurant opening, Ryan and her 4 children gather up their things before leaving for the night, on Sept. 30, 2009.

Picture Story: Motherhood, Second Time Around

2010-10-29T22:04:00.069-05:00

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.

Story time with Keyah is interrupted by Eric. Interruptions like these are commonplace throughout the day for Tammy.

As a way to contribute to her grandchildren's development, Tammy often plays games and reads them stories. At present, she is dancing.

Tammy relaxes for a moment while the twins and Kaylah play in the next room. Her 'Hot Stuff' slippers and anklet hint at her past life - empty nester and former model.

With her grandchildren, Tammy is never left alone, not even when in the bathroom. Here, Tammy prepares the children for the evening's bath.

Typically the sole caretaker of her grandchildren, Tammy is forced to bathe the younger twins together. Before she took on this role, the children hated baths. Now they jump up and down with glee at the prospect of their bath.

Tammy pats granddaughter Erykah on the head as she puts the twins to bed. Keyah and Kylah are settled to her right, with Eric off screen in another bed. Before Tammy began taking care of her grandchildren, all four children slept in the same bed. Tammy is working on having the children sleep in separate spaces, but it is a gradual process that comes with lots of crying.

The picture stories were limited to 8 images. If I could have done a few more, I would have included these three:

Sippy cup lids wait for the next meal. In the background, granddaughter Keya hugs Tammy's legs as she attempts to clean the kitchen.

Chaos reigns at Tammy's feet during play time. Eric fiddles with some legos as Tammy changes his sister's diaper.

Erykah wriggles during her nightly tooth brushing. Until the 4 children are older, every night will be a repeat of this ritual.

Project 365 - W29

2010-10-25T23:33:00.045-05:00

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.

The Bolls are probably going to take care of Cullen while I'm in Brussels. They must like black dogs. (They own a black dog named Lady.) They're considering it and my fingers are crossed. That leaves Dudley to arrange lodging for (my parents are going to take care of Riley). When my parents discussed taking Riley, my Dad seemed to be under the impression that I was giving away my dogs, rather than just having someone watch them for me for 4 months. Of course, he knew I was keeping Riley, but the other two, free game. I corrected that impression.

I'm going to miss my boys when I'm gone. Hopefully, I'll be busy enough to not think about them too much. Fingers crossed about working for the AP!

Okay, so I was watching America's Next Top Model and I decided to try to 'model' a bit. This is me smizing and staring intensely, "while keeping my jaw loose." I just am not the greatest at having the intensity in my pictures, not like Tyra and the panel want it. So a model I am not.

Two weeks ago, I edited the MU football game against Colorado. I felt really proud of what I did - after the fact, after I got over the stress that came with trying to send pictures back to the photo bubble and feeling like I screwed up because it took so long. But I felt proud because I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find pictures they'd want. And they didn't have to request anything :) And it looked good! So I decided to take a picture of the double truck posted on the Photo Bubble's door.

On the 23rd, MU football had an epic Homecoming game against Oklahoma. With an 5-0 record, ESPN decided to feature the MU campus for its weekly "Game Day" show. Here, they've overrun the street leading up to the quad. It was the first time "Game Day" had come to campus, and they raved about our fans.

So, it's Homecoming and my parents came up for a visit. We didn't actually go to the game, but spent time together. I was supposed to get reservations for lunch, but they weren't taking reservations because of Homecoming. I took this picture illustrating how my remote shutter trigger worked. I wasn't looking when I took this picture.

I met with Tammy and her daughter, Shekia, to go through their wedding pictures. The lake/pond by her house had a flock of geese swimming in it, so I stopped and snapped this picture, using my zoom lens. I stayed in the car so as to not spook the geese. I could just see them running after me, threatening me...

Picture Story: Blood Donor Dogs

2010-10-25T15:26:00.001-05:00

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.

After the fur has been shaved and the needle inserted, the collection process begins, on Dec. 2, 2009. The hands are there simply to keep Jack Smith from moving slightly while donating; he and the other 5 dogs typically lay still during the entire donation process. While a dog can safely give blood every 21 days, each of College's five greyhounds donates blood about 6 times a year for 2-3 years, and then are adopted out to loving homes.

Jack Smith accepts his reward for a job well done, on Dec. 2, 2009. Jack Smith and the other donor dogs are "universal donors;" unlike cats who have specific blood types, dogs without the antigens 1.1, 1.2, 5 and 7 are considered universal donors.

Jack Smith investigates what Matt Haight doing as Haight works at separating the donated blood into plasma and red blood cells. Stored in the refrigerator, the red blood cells are usually keep for 32-42 das and fresh plasma is kept up to a year.

Matt Haight checks a packet of donated blood after it has been separated in the centrifuge, on Dec. 2, 2009. The plasma floats on the top, while the red blood cells sink to the bottom. After the centrifuge, the plasma and red blood cells are separated and stored in a refrigerator.

Dora takes a moment to rest from playing with her female compatriots on Nov. 3, 2009. She has been at the College of Veterinary Medicine the longest and will be adopted out as soon as a suitable family is found. The donor program's coordinator, Matt Haight, is very particular about the families he chooses because he wants to ensure that his dogs will have the best lives possible after they leave his care.

Coordinator Matt Haight shares a hug with Madaline, one of his five blood donor dogs, on Nov. 4, 2009. Haight describes her as "a nut" and "a licker." Haight typically rescues his dogs from racing tracks and chooses to use greyhounds because of their temperament and because their greater likelihood to be a universal donor.

An Idea for a Photo Essay

2010-10-21T15:13:00.000-05:00

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. I really hate how American culture is so focused on the new that they discard the old, and it bleeds over into how it treats people. I can see this attitude springing out of America's lack of history, being only 234 years old, out of its history, with its expansion West, leaving behind what's old and discovering the new. I can see this disposable attitude born out of the abudance of natural resources that America had that the old country (Europe) didn't have. But I hate how it's there, in our psyche.

In my family, there's only my grandpa anymore. (His younger brother is also alive, but he lives about 5 hours away, so I hardly see him.) The rest of my grandparents have passed away. And since my grandma died in 2003, my grandpa pretty much stopped living, too. All he did was vegetate in his home. My dad and my uncles would take him out places, but it was like pulling teeth. It was very frustrating (for me and for them), to see him do nothing anymore and not want to do anything about it. Like he's waiting to die.

And as he vegetates, his mind become less sharp. Which lead to him being inconsistent with taking his medicine, medicine like his heart medication, and being inconsistent about eating. His sons tried to figure out a solution that wasn't a nursing home, but even living in assisted living, where he had his own space, etc, but meals were provided, he just didn't go down to dinner. So last year, he ended up so weak and dehydrated that he spent a week in the hospital. I visited him and his couldn't even talk, barely open his eyes, because he was so weak. They ended up having to move him into a nursing home.

It's really hard seeing him like that. It really hurts my heart. When I go visit my dad, I don't always visit him. And I guess I should, but I hate seeing him giving up on life. It just makes me really sad, because he was a great man. He never did anything famous -- except he's the (uncredited) guy who came up with putting plexiglass underneath the hood of a car to muffle the noise -- and he's done tons of things like that -- but he worked hard for his family and provided for them. He took his role of father seriously and no, he wasn't perfect, and yes, he was frustrating at times, but he provided for his family and taught his sons how to be men. Not just men, but men with (good) character. And to me, that's what makes a great man. I should deny myself more and go, because he deserves that.

But back to my idea. I want to do an essay that celebrates those later years. The character of someone who has lived life.

Project 365 - W28

2010-10-18T14:37:00.003-05:00

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. I just really didn't want to deal with it and it kind of came through. One of our photographers, who I shall call Pat (or Paaaaaat for all you SNL fans), can be really touchy about how the photos s/he has taken are used, and today (when I'm trying to do something that Pat should have done something in the first place), s/he came into the Photo Bubble and was like, "What are you doing?!!" Like 'why are you desecrating the work that I've done?!!' When all I am trying to do is edit one of Pat's photos (that Pat should have dumped into the edited folder for the project) so that it looks like it did in Pat's multimedia piece that the copy desk was chomping at the bit to put online but needed this picture to put up with the piece. And of course, once Pat discovered what exactly I was doing, Pat didn't like the picture I had chosen, so we ended up having to use another one. And the ironic thing is that the thumbnail they used on the front for her piece *was* the picture I had chosen and liked better.

Just all together annoying. I hope when I am working with an editor, I am not one of those annoying people. And Pat is always like this - overly touchy/possessive about what s/he creates and at the same time, makes more work for us editors because s/he likes to shoot in raw, when the pictures need to be jpegs. But I digress. I shouldn't have let the stress get to me.

This is my approximation of my new passport picture. After searching for all last week my passport, going through every place it could be inside, and through all of my boxes out in the storage shed and being unsuccessful, it occured to me yesterday that I may have, on my father's encouragement, put my passport in my fireproof suitcase that they gave me for Christmas a few years ago. Instead of leaving it in the exact same spot where I have kept it since I got my first passport back in 1987, I believe I put it in the suitcase. And now, I cannot seem to find that suitcase. It is probably stuck in some corner of the storage shed, but I didn't seem to find it when I went looking for it. So, I ended up sending off for a replacement passport on Tuesday. And after the meeting with the International Programs office on Tuesday morning, I made sure that it was expedited so that I will have it back in time to get my Visa for Belgium. Which cost me an extra $60. Arg!

But while I was at the Post Office (which is where I got my picture taken, BTW), it occurred to me that I would have had to renew it anyway, because it would have expired while I was abroad. If I do end up going to Brussels, I will be there through the end of April, and the passport would have expired at the end of March, 2011.

At least I was able to, during my search, find my old canceled passport from 1987, so that I could send that it instead of my flimsy birth certificate.

But picture is my approximation of what my passport picture will look like. The postman, named (Michael) Wood, had me put my hair behind my ears for the picture. And, of course, when I have to stand with no smile on my face, my eyes tend to look buggy. (You should see my first driver's license picture!)

On Wednesday, Dr. Temple Grandin spoke on the MU campus. It was so interesting.

I went to the lecture with Kim, who had discovered Grandin because of the biopic movie that she rented from Redbox. I knew about Grandin because of an All Things Considered piece I heard back in 2002. She is a really incredible woman who just happens to be autistic.

Her lecture was really interesting. I want to read her books (which she mentioned, I think 3 times during her lecture, that they're available on Amazon.com). She was very detailed in describing how autistic think. Very insightful. I really enjoyed it - because she is funny and engaging. And she argues that this is because of a lifetime of learning how to move from the specific to the general, making associations between the specific folders of her mind. It was very cool and something that I'm going to mention to my cousin, whose son has Asperger's and who could be helped with some of her admonishments (like that they need lots of experiences to make connections and that they need exposure to tons of things so that they can become productive adults).

One other anecdote: a woman asked about how to potty train her 8-year-old autistic son so that he will have a bowel movement in the toilet. After asking a few questions, Temple basically said that her son would need to *see* someone pooping in the toilet, "leave nothing to the imagination." Which is hysterical, but also very insightful in how the autistic mind works.

I thought this was very sweet - Riley was snuggled between Cullen and the wall. Yes, this is almost a typical occurance, but not this sandwich. And I caught Cullen's tail not wagging. Which is unusual - because you just look at Cullen and he realizes it, it will wag.

This Friday was relatively slow. And since I was feeling under the weather, the time seemed to drag on and on. This picture is in relation to Vox's upcoming edition of drinking. The magazine's editors couldn't decide between the two images, so they got the newsroom's opinions as to which they liked better. I said: (indicating that I prefer the picture on the right) that it "catches my eye more, more appealing; may be more 'sophisticated' but the one on the left immediately makes me think it's about out-of-control college drinking ONLY; this cover looks more inclusive of the entire CoMo community." (And someone seconded my opinion :)

They ended up going with the one I liked. :)

Arg! I hate fleas! Riley has been keeping me awake, which I figured out was not because of gas but because his rump was itchy. I hate flea season (Summer and Fall)! Riley is allergic to their bites and if he gets any, goes outside and rolls around in the dirt to get his itches, which gets him bitten more and the circle continues... So Riley's been itching and even with his flea treatment, seemed to pick quite a few fleas. (Dudley was actually worse - I must have picked at least 20 fleas off of him! Craziness.) But this is what happens when Riley gnaws on a spot. He ripped out his fur and left this oozing spot (about the size of a half-dollar). So I trimmed back the fur and have been putting on Sulfadene to stop the itching and make the scab. (Which amazingly also helped me get a good night's sleep because Riley wasn't freaked out...)

As usual, Sunday is a pretty busy day. I took communion to Aunt Louise (she was under the weather) and took the boys to the park (where I got to talk about how fantastic the photoj program is at MU) and I also got to watch Reece play his last game of the season. I chose this picture because it kind of encapsulates Reece playing soccer - he's serious but goofy all at the same time. He's still trying to figure out what to do with his appendages, so sometimes he seems spacey, but he's not. It was pretty cool - Reece specifically requested that I come and watch him play :)

Project 365 - W27

2010-10-11T11:40:00.000-05:00

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.

So we had family group out at the Herbolds. It was actually pretty good - I made spaghetti to go with the chili and it seemed to be pretty popular. I didn't bring any of the 5 cups of pasta that I made home. As I was driving home, I took this picture. Just because I thought it was interesting, the lights on the highway.

For the last couple of weeks, I've traveled up to campus for our beat meeting, only to discover that I needn't have bothered. No one was there. the weather was nice, so I took the boys with me, to take a walk after the meeting is over. No meeting, took the walk sooner. And so, I posed the boys next to Sparky the Bulldog. I love how the picture is very expressive of their personalities.

Friday night was devo at Billiards. But since I've taken pool pictures with my friends, I abstained. But I chose to take this picture, because people who drive like this really irritate me and make me wish I could give them a ticket. I *hate* it when people don't park within their lines (thus taking up 2 parking spots). I *hate* it when they don't straighten their car or they park on the line so that you, parking correctly, run the risk of them slamming their door into your when they don't pay attention opening their vehicle's doors. I have several dings on my car, including a nice inch-long line on my left back door, where someone was nice enough to not pay attention and dinged my car.

So, this picture I took from the press box. If you're interested in my description of the day, read my blog post here. One of the craziest thing about the press box is the lack of phone reception inside the box. And I could receive calls, just not place them. If I sent a text, I had to go set my phone on the window sill or it wouldn't go. Makes communicating with the Photo Bubble really 'easy.'

On Sunday, we had a special Song and Praise worship service - it was really nice. I ended up oversleeping my alarm by almost 2 hours - which was *awesome.* So I woke up 8:43. And I'm supposed to be there at 8:30. I was totally disoriented, too, going what day is it. And then, crap! Because this was not the morning to oversleep, esp. because I have a solo today. But, amazingly, I got ready in about 5 minutes and was at church in about 10. Luckily, because all that I ended up performing (because it was my 'day off') was our two special songs. And it went 'okay.' I rushed my solo (in God Alone) a little - those darn nerves! It was really bizarre. Right as we went on stage I just this burst of adrenaline and I got jittery. And then, we hadn't really practiced it all together, so I was the only one of the sopranos that was on the right note. Kim was singing *way* too high so it didn't sound right (blending) and Melissa couldn't find her note. I ended up singing louder so that the soprano would be on the right note. At the end of the service, Austin complimented us, but told me and Holly that the only voices that he could really hear were ours and his dad's. Holly and I both agree that it's better when it's just the 4 of us, and I like it when it's not being directed, where you're listening to each other and taking cues from each other than from someone else.

We also ended up not doing "Abba Father." I think Vince is going to be tailoring an entire service around the song. Which will be cool.

The service itself was cool - I really loved how Vince taught a lesson about praising God. This picture is from the dance that Monique (the woman in the center) choreographed. It was danced to the song "Waging War," sung by CeCe Winans, and represented the struggle between doing good and doing evil. The women in white were angels and in black were demons. I think Susan did a fabulous job being 'evil.' I loved how she took her role seriously. At one point, the evil ones walked out into the crowd and she totally was stalking people. It was cool.

Editing the MU Football Game

2010-10-10T23:39:00.000-05:00

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.

ELISA DAY/Fans wait to enter at the North entrance of Memorial Stadium on October 9, 2010. MU's Tigers play the Colorado Buffalos for the last time in conference play, before Colorado leaves the Big 12 for the Pac 10.

We got to the parking lot out by Reactor Field at around 2:45, expecting the media shuttle to start at 3 pm. On Saturday, the temperature got up to about 86*. There was nice breeze, but the sun was HOT. And I hate baking in the hot sun. Which is what I did, because there is no shelter by where the shuttles (public and media) pick up their passengers. But we waited, and waited. And waited. Another photographer, who covers the football games for a Mizzou website, mentioned that the Missourian folks always seem to be around waiting 30-45 minutes before the shuttle would start. Another interesting tidbit - the media shuttle driver is not affiliated with MoX and she seems to always be late, even if she's supposed to start 2:30 hours before the game starts.

One of the photographers, Rob Bratney, had an assignment photographing a girl in MU's marching band at 3:30. And by 3:30, the shuttle *still* hadn't come, even though it was 2:30 hours before game time. So we got on the regular shuttle and then walked all the way around the stadium to get to the press entrance. While we were waiting for the shuttle, Rob informed me that he only had one battery, so I arranged with Erica (the editor back at the Missourian) for her to bring the other battery out to us. When we got to the stadium, Rob broke off to take his pictures of the band girl, and I took his gear. And, guess what? The camera I took was the one with battery in it, so Rob ended up photographing the girl and not doing pre-game pics.

Per the time table that Caitlyn sent out, I went out to take pre-game pictures. I ended up being the only one who took anything decent. I never thought I would have anything published this semester, but I got 4 pictures on the Missourian website. One of the sports reporters decided that it would be cool to have pics of the empty tailgating spots right after kickoff, so Christina ended up spending most of the first quarter doing that, rather than taking pictures. (When we talked about this in class on Monday, Brian was not happy about that.)

Left: ELISA DAY/Jason LaRue, 3, plays keep away from his grandpa, Charles LaRue '65, while is mother, Masja, watches, on October 9, 2010. Jason's father, Mark (not pictured), also attended MU, graduating in 1992. || This one was really fun to watch. I love seeing little kids thrill over games like this, and his grandpa loving goofing around with him. You might have noticed that his coloring's a little different; his grandpa told me that he was adopted from Guatemala (unsolicited).
Right: ELISA DAY/Cecily Pickering, of Kansas City, builds a plate of fruit while tailgating before the MU football game against the Colorado Buffalos, on October 9, 2010. || I thought this was really unique; Pickering brought healthy food to a tailgate.

I also discovered that, because I didn't have a 'P' on my media pass, I couldn't go onto the field to collect the cards like I was supposed to, and so that part of the time table got pushed back, waiting for me to be able to connect on the phone, when there is totally spotty coverage and 9 times out of 10 I have no signal, to be able to get in touch with the 2 photogs on the field to get their cards. Christina was going to do it for me, but she still wasn't back from that project with the sports writer.

Another complication for the evening was the EXTREMELY slow internet. It was insane. I let Erica know but it was ridiculous. And it made what could have been an okay evening very frustrating. Because it would take several minutes (10) to upload one picture. The Print Desk got really antsy at the lack of pictures that had been sent and shortly after the game was over at around 9:30, and right as the internet started to be faster, Erica's getting pressure and then the Print Desk editor gets on the phone and basically commands me to send someone with pictures on a jump drive in the next 15 minutes. 'Because if they don't have the pictures, there won't be time to set the page, and then Jeff-City won't be printing the paper.' As if I didn't know that. And even though I tried to explain what was going on, including how the problem with his request was because of post-game traffic and even if one of the photographers happened to run down the hill to her car, it would take at least 15 minutes to get there, running downhill, and then she would have to contend with all the exiting traffic, I got cut off with "No, this is where you tell me, yes, the pictures will be there in 15 minutes." So I said, "okay."

What was really great is the fact that right around then, the internet really started to pick up, so I was able to get the pictures to Erica so that he would have them. So his order was totally stupid. Luckily, Christina (the one who drove) called Erica to communicate about the traffic and Erica told her to go back to the press box.

That reminds me - the Print Desk editor also had to put in a jab about how I was dragging my feet in agreeing to comply with his request because I didn't want anyone to drive my car. Isn't that lovely? Like I would care.

At the end of the day, the double truck ended up looking nice - and I was happy that I was able to pick out pictures they liked and not once did they have to ask me for something else. (I was nervous about this one, since I've never really paid attention to sports photography, at least in the same way that I pay attention to other types of photography.) I was happy about that. I wasn't happy with the fact that I basically got another lecture during my follow-up conversation with the Print Desk editor, where he (talking quickly) explained his side of the stress and didn't apologize, nor did he ask any questions to make sure that his take on the situation was accurate, but did reiterate how I would have needed to physically send something, even if that meant walking something over. Fun times.

At least I can say that I have football editing under my belt and I can put it on my resume.

Here's some pictures from the game:

ALEX GIDDINGS/MU Senior Bart Coslet (#98), Junior Brendan Donaldson (#58), Dave Steckel (Defensive Coordinator), and Pat Ivey (Assistant AD) react to MU's first score, a safety, in the first half of MU's game against Colorado, on October 9, 2010.
Captioning this one was a little frustrating because I didn't know who the coaches were. I could figure out who the players were because of their numbers, and with the help of the media booklet they gave out, but the coaches? And when I asked the Sports writers for help, they told me wait for halftime. I ended up taking them a picture and getting Stekel's name and luckily a (former) player was in the press box to identify Ivey.

ALEX GIDDINGS/Missouri defensive lineman Dominique Hamilton (#90) sidesteps a blocker on his way to sacking Colorado quarterback Tyler Hansen (#9), during the first half of Saturday's game, on October 9,2010.
This one was another one that was hard to caption because I couldn't quite tell what his number was. I ended up first thinking he was #80. I didn't find out until I was able to talk to the photographer.

ALEX GIDDINGS/Quarterback Blaine Gabbert passes the ball during Saturday's game against Colorado. Gabbert passed for a total of 191 yards, completing 17 of 29 attempts.
The photo that ran on the Missourian's website was cropped into a vertical, but I liked this better, I think because of the background.

ALEX GIDDINGS/Freshman quarterback James Franklin rushes during the 4th quarter of the Mizzou football game on Saturday, October 9th 2010 against Colorado. After Gabbert was injured, Franklin played the 4th quarter as QB and completed a touchdown pass.

ROB BRATNEY/Truman the Tiger sprays cheerleaders and members of MU's "Tiger Lair" during the first half of MU's game against Colorado on October 9, 2010.
I loved this picture because of the reactions of the people being sprayed. The looks on the faces of the cheerleaders, especially the blonde, and the girl in the teal who is guarding her hair...

ALEX GIDDINGS/QB Blaine Gabbert evades a tackle by Colorado's BJ Beatty (#59), on Saturday, October 9, 2010.
Like any good quarterback, Blaine Gabbert is not afraid to run with the ball. And normally, he doesn't get tackled, either.

ROB BRATNEY/#26 De'Vion Moore evades a tackle in the second half of MU's game against Colorado on October 9, 2010. MU left Colorado scoreless, 26-0.
This was another one that was fun to caption. MU's nice in that they have more than one player use the same number. And since you can't see faces, you can't really tell by number alone. And since I don't know exactly when in the game this play happens, guessing based on positions (which I'm not totally familiar with the names of the positions) is kinda hard. On Monday, I asked Brian what I could do differently, and his suggestions didn't really help with this situation.

Left: ROB BRATNEY/#93 Terrell Rosonno blocks kicker Justin Castor's field goal attempt on October 9, 2010.
Right: CHRISTINA MANOLIS/#82 Michael Egnew leaps and catches the final touchdown of MU's game against Colorado on Saturday, October 9, 2010. MU won 26-0.
One thing that was really great about this game is the number of blocks that the MU defense perpetrated.

One thing that did bug me, besides missing the action because I was looking at images, editing, trying to get images transmitted, is that ESPN didn't bother to talk about on either SportsCenter or the College Football Roundup. I guess it just goes to show that what seems 'important' in mid-Missouri (that MU-CU showdown before CU leave the conference) isn't quite as important to the rest of the nation. They were much more concerned with discussing Alabama's loss and Ohio State's performance. I mean, there wasn't even a recap or a mention. Annoying. No respect.

Photographers featured in this blog post:
Rob Bratney
Alex Giddings
Christina Manolis

A Few of My Entries for CPOY

2010-10-07T03:50:00.001-05:00

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.

Microphones wait as the crew of MSA Productions/B&M Stage Productions prepare the stage in Peace Park, on Friday, Sept. 25, 2009. The company, co-owned by Bob Reeves, has worked every Roots 'N Blues 'N BBQ Festival, and this year it is providing all the sound and power for the event.

Michael Butterworth of Butterworth Music adjusts the tuning hammer slightly as he tunes one of the two baby grand pianos that will be used in tonight's duel between Sutu Forte and Ken Kehner, as part of the First Night New Year's Eve festivities at the Missouri Theatre Center for the Arts, on Thursday, December 31, 2009. Kehner was Forte's jazz instructor at The Juilliard School in New York City.

In the Feature category:

First grader Devin Graves works to catch a snowflake as he and his class walk back from watching the Columbia College Cougars play the Lyon (Ark.) College Scots on Friday, December 18, 2009. Graves attends Field Elementary, which had partnered for several years with Columbia College and is moving to a new location after the 18th. The basketball game was a way to celebrate this partnership, as well as saying good-bye, and was attended by the entire elementary school.

After the fur has been shaved and the needle inserted, the collection process begins, on Dec. 2, 2009. While a dog can safely give blood every 21 days, each of the College of Veterinary Medicine's five greyhounds donates blood about 6 times a year for 2-3 years, and then are adopted out to loving homes.

A brief respite for Tammy Kelliehan as the two twins guzzle their juice. From left: Keyah, Eric, Erykah, Tammy, and Kyla. Forty-one year old Kelliehan has taken in her daughter's five children, including two sets of twins, aged 2 and 1.

Rey Perera scatters feed for his farm's rams on Tuesday, February 16, 2010. The Pereras own the Petite Saline Sheep & Llama Farm in Boonville, Mo., and specialize in the Karakul breed. They keep their rams and ewes separate, except during breeding season, because it keeps the rams calmer and less likely to butt Perera or each other.

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.

I Must Break You

2010-10-06T12:26:00.008-05:00

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.

Those Visa Sports Commercials! Continued

2010-10-06T00:59:00.001-05:00

The answer to the Thorpedo:

And a vault I will remember forever.

Those Visa Sports Commercials!

2010-10-06T00:58:00.009-05:00

I have to say, I'm a big softy. I cry at commercials. I cry when I see athletes achieve their goals. I cried when Russell won the sixth season of So You Think You Can Dance (and boy! do I love watching him crump).

But this blog post is dedicated to those memorable Visa Olympics commercials.

This was a moment that I cried at (well, both moments). I cried with Dan in 1988 when he fell and sat there dispondent because he had broken his promise to his sister, who had died from leukemia just a few hours before. And I cried when he won a gold on his very last race (before he retired) 6 years later. A man who had tried in 3 Olympics to win a race finally achieved it on his very last try.

A nice article about Dan's efforts and accomplishment.

Next up: Bob Beamon.

I thought it was so cool to hear his story. He was one Olympic athlete that I wasn't completely familiar with.

The Fosbury Flop!

Beware Toasted Skin Syndrome!!!

2010-10-04T09:41:00.006-05:00

Picture courtesy of the Telegraph (UK)
Saw the press release for this article on "Toasted Skin Syndrome" today and had to comment on it.

Apparently "a 12-year-old boy developed a sponge-patterned skin discoloration on his left thigh after playing computer games a few hours every day for several months." And a Virginia law student spent 6-hours a day with it propped in her lap.

Here are my thoughts:
1) Why did Swiss researchers waste time studying this?
2) Why call it a syndrome when it's happened to 10(TEN) people in the last 6(SIX) years?
3) Why did the Telegraph (UK) or the Huffington Post bother relaying this? (Although it is nice to know that "A medical report several years ago found that men who used laptops on their laps had elevated scrotum temperatures. If prolonged, that kind of heat can decrease sperm production, which can potentially lead to infertility."

And finally:

4) Who is stupid enough to let their laptop toast their skin in the first place?!! That heat makes me uncomfortable so I put something in between me and it. That's just common sense.

Project 365 - W26

2010-10-04T01:05:00.002-05:00

Week 26. Fingers crossed about Brussels!

Monday. It was 'busy,' meaning I found things to do in the Photo Bubble. Even though the reporters were working on things, we had no photo requests for the day, actually for the entire week. And what's really annoying - a reporter from the sports desk, who knew she had 3 volleyball games to cover that week earlier than Monday morning, just waited until the last minute to put her requests in. And they were crappy requests, too! No information whatsoever. She didn't even bother to tell us the sport, let alone where on the high school it would held. I sometimes wonder if it's just this semester or if reporters are always this pathetic. Okay, I'm being severe. It comes from my frustration -- because if you can't follow simple directions, how can you accurately investigate a story?

What I found to do was look through community calendars and make FYI photo requests. Which actually turned out to be very helpful this week (according to Brian) because it gave us stuff to do and take pictures of. So, come Monday morning, I will search the week's calendars for events. I think one of the reasons why Brian likes it is because he likes being able to 'get one up on' the print desk by telling them things they don't know (but should).

And this picture? What does this picture have to do with anything? Well, right at the end of my shift, there was an announcement over the police scanner (yes, we have a police scanner, which alerts us to happening news...) about a woman being pried out of a car. At the intersection of Rogers and Fifth Street (an intersection I drive through at least twice a day). So Tim rushed right over there (before the reporter went out to the scene, too ;) I took this picture with my iPhone as I was driving by the accident. This guy was one of many watching all the action.

Tuesday. So I felt like taking goofy pictures of myself today. This was the winner - me as the cranky librarian.

Wednesday. This is one of those pictures where I just want to smother Riley with kisses because he looks so sweet. I love my Ri-Ri. I also though the picture was noteworthy because of how he was lying across the pillows. He doesn't usually lie across both pillows like this.

Thursday. This day, I journeyed to the Smiths to help babysit for their marrieds class. They were expecting 14 kids, so having an adult there (rather than just Adriannah) was needed. The kids were rambunctious is the only word I would use. Just pressing boundaries all over the place. And, the worst offender was Adriannah, which I didn't expect and don't understand. I mean, it was like she was deliberately trying to not be helpful. And I don't know if it was just her trying to be funny, but it was annoying. We were trying to act out the story of Esther and it was like every time she had her part to play, she was deliberately going off script and saying things that weren't part of the story and shouldn't be part of the story. Her brother can be difficult to keep on task and maybe she was just happy not to be responsible for doing the herding.

(Big) Tracy also came over to help and was a good sport. He dressed up as King Xerxes with a towel turban and blue blanket cape. He'd never wrapped his head in a towel so I had to show him and then help. I thought everyone knew how to do that.

I almost picked this picture for today's pic, but I thought that this one fit more the situation. Jace is on the floor because Reece just 'shot' him with his gun.

Friday. My application for the Brussels program was due and I had one thing left on my list: getting fingerprinted for my FBI background check (and Brussels visa application). Kip from International Programs told me that the MU Police could help me solve my problem, so I journeyed over to the Maryland Avenue garage to get my fingerprints. When I got there, I found out they usually do fingerprinting on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. This was Friday, and the day my application was due. Ah! So, as the receptionist went back to see if there was someone to help me, I prayed some and God came through. Amen, God! This is the nice sergeant (Jerry Armentrout) that was nice enough to fingerprint me. It was interesting to chat while he rolled my prints and nice enough to pose for a portrait. I prompted him to give me a stern face :)

Saturday. Stinking dog!!! Well, it turns out that Riley has been constipated lately and the last 2 nights has kept me up all night. The first night it was annoying and Friday night it was frustrating! Arg. What does a dog park have to do with anything? This is where I figured out that Riley was constipated, because he kept trying to poop and nothing was coming out.

I was planning on going to the Roots 'N Blues 'N BBQ Festival to take some pics, but was too tired. Slept about 5 hours between 8 am and 1 pm. (Getting no sleep 2 nights in a row wears on a person.) Then had practice @ 2 for the special Song and Praise Worship Service practice -- doing a song by Sherwin Mackintosh which has some really awkward rhythms. Unnatural. Chia-Wei heard them do the song at the International Leadership Conference in Miami and he mentioned that the way they sang it was *different* than the way that it's written. But instead of trying to do it in a way that feels natural, we're doing it the way it's written. I'm not bitter at all. Nor am I bitter at how the last third of the song is *extremely* high - like I get to sing up into the F above the high C. And since my voice has been off (not singing) for 3 months - ouch. And on top of that, I still have that pesky problem of squeaking when I sing a B (I think that's the note). It's really annoying.

So after practice, I still felt rather crappy so I decided, since it was such a nice cool day (yay, October!), to take the boys out to the dog park. Dudley was in rare form and kept trying to constantly hump Riley (I have yet to figure out why or how to train him to stop. It's only Riley he does this too. It's so weird.) I was able to help a dog (Goober) who had never really been to the dog park and was (fear) growling, which freaked out his owner, who worried that Goober would get attacked or something. I told her that most likely, he was stressed because she had him on a leash inside the park, so he didn't feel like he could run away from something scary. When she finally let him off the leash, he was fine. He actually played a bunch with his friend, Luxurious, the Pomeranian.

After the dog park, I headed into the Missourian and helped edit pictures from the Roots 'N Blues 'N BBQ Festival. Read about it in my blogpost here. They got some awesome pictures!

Sunday. So last night I got to go to sleep, although I couldn't fall asleep until after 2 because of a migraine! Stupid thing. This picture is an homage to me asleep. It wasn't as long as I wanted it to be, but at least it was a good night's sleep.

And on a side note, Riley finally was able to poop. Of course, it was inside after I left for church. Which led Tracy to let the dogs outside and then they got out and wandered the neighborhood for about 10 minutes. It is nice, though, that when I whistle, they come back (so I drove back from church and brought them home). (And stinky Cullen decided to run off down the block as we were going inside. So I had to drive down the street and get him again.)

Saturday Night in the Photo Bubble

2010-10-03T00:37:00.060-05:00

John Reynolds, from New York, kisses his girlfriend, Kristina Wenzel, a Doctorate student at MU while watching Dan Tyminski play at Locust and 7th Street at the Roots 'N Blues 'N BBQ Festival on Saturday, October 2nd, 2010. Reynolds jokingly said that he came all the way from New York just for the barbecue. | ANDREW WILLIAMS

The above picture is one of my favorites from the entire evening. Such a great moment. Good job, Andrew!!!

So, today was the second day of the Roots 'N Blues 'N BBQ Festival, which meant a whole mess of photos to edit for Saturday night. And since today was also the end of MPW, that meant that Erica was working all by herself. So I volunteered to come in and help her Saturday evening with the slide shows for the event.

Rex Scott, 34, grills chicken at the Jamaican Jerk Hut during the Roots 'N Blues 'N BBQ Festival on Saturday, October 2nd, 2010. Scott said that he has been cooking jerk chicken at the festival ever since it started 2007. The Jamaican Jerk Hut cooks about 500 pounds of meat which takes around three hours to grill. | ANDREW WILLIAMS

Arriving a little after 7 pm, I didn't really get very busy until around 7:45. That's when the photographers started coming back in from being out shooting. As we talked, we figured out that a slide show from Friday hadn't been created/posted, so I put it on my to-do list and got to work.

Left: Cups of beer sit atop coolers under the beer tent on Elm Street at the Roots 'N Blues 'N BBQ Festival on Saturday, October 2nd, 2010. | ANDREW WILLIAMS
Right: Lindsay Yoder, a graduate student at MU, and Eric Starr, of Chicago, pump barbecue sauces onto their burgers from Hoss' Market at the Roots 'N Blues 'N BBQ Festival on Saturday, October 2nd, 2010. | ANDREW WILLIAMS

I went through all the edited pictures from Friday and toned and cropped as I thought might improve them. Then I organized the order in Bridge and renamed the files in order, so that when we loaded them into SoundSlides, they would be in the right order. Then Erica (and I) edited the captions. And voila.

Friday's Slideshow
Saturday's Slideshow
(And thanks to Brenden for his momentary input, so that the custom settings would be there.)

Watching from a distance, festival goers sit at picnic tables in Peace Park, as they wait for Music Maker Revue to begin playing at the Roots 'N Blues 'N BBQ Festival on Saturday, October 2nd, 2010. | ANDREW WILLIAMS

Noticing that we were lacking some food pics, I went back through the edits and found several other pictures that we could use to round out the slide show. One of those we ended up using in the double-truck that print was going to be doing for Sunday (below left, and methinks that it looks really good).

Left: Festival goers gather on Locust Street to wait for Dan Tyminski to take the Mpix Stage at the Roots 'N Blues 'N BBQ Festival on Saturday, October 2nd, 2010. | ANDREW WILLIAMS
Right: Terra Stephan serves customers beer at the Miller tent during Roots 'N' Blues 'N' BBQ Festival Friday, October 1, 2010. Festival goers lined up prior to the first bands going on stage. | ALLISON ZIEMBA

Several of the pictures (for Friday and Saturday) I re-toned because they were really off (like red or yellow). Then went through the same steps for the Saturday slide show.

Dan Tyminski and Ronnie Bowman begin their performance on the Mpix stage at the Roots 'N Blues 'N BBQ Festival on Saturday, October 2nd, 2010. | ANDREW WILLIAMS

Festival goers stand outside Lutz's Famous BBQ on 7th Street at the Roots 'N Blues 'N BBQ Festival on Saturday, October 2nd, 2010. | ANDREW WILLIAMS

Shemekia Copeland takes the Mpix stage at the Roots 'N Blues 'N BBQ Festival on Friday, October 1, 2010. Copeland and her band were the first to perform at the Mpix stage during the festival. | ERIN STUBBLEFIELD

I ended up leaving the Missourian at around 12m. And boy am I tired! Because Riley kept me up yet again last night! And I put him outside, but discovered that he dug through my potting dirt barricade and managed to squeeze out of the corner of the fence. That hole was small, too. So I had to bring him back inside.

I figured out that the gas is most likely because he's constipated. (Yes, I know you wanted to know that.) Hopefully, tonight won't be a repeat, or I will be dead in church tomorrow.

- - - - - - - - - -

Links to the photographers featured in this webpost:
Andrew Williams
Allison Ziemba
Erin Stubblefield

Going Ballooning

2010-09-30T02:02:00.000-05:00

One thing that I've been wanting to do for a while is photograph my friend, Tracy Sines, and his parents, Jan and Gary, doing hot air ballooning. This Saturday (September 25), I got the opportunity to see them in action. And boy, was it fun!

Tracy's parents own Balloon Stormers, a company which flies in races, trains pilots, and offers rides throughout the state of Missouri. They've competed in the US, as well as Costa Rica, Mexico, and China. They also own the World's Biggest Gumball Machine and Coco the Clown balloon. Neither balloon flew on Saturday.

We (Tracy, Steven and Melissa Silvey, and I) drove to New Haven, Mo., to attend its annual balloon race. The race was actually canceled because of weather, but some people flew away, including Tracy's mom, Jan. His dad, Gary, decided to inflate their balloon, the World's Biggest Gumball Machine. Here's some of my favorites from this event.

This one was taken through the vent at the other end of the balloon. I love that I caught them peering into the balloon to watch it inflate.

This one amuses me - this big guy (he's 6'10") 'fighting' against this balloon. Tracy told me that he's been doing this job since he was around 12. Back when he was smaller, the balloon used to drag him. Now, not so much.

This one cracks me up. It really looks like Gary is blowing up the balloon like bubble gum, instead of with the fan.

I love how the flame is reflected in Tracy's glasses.

Another one that makes me chuckle - this was toward the end of the day. Tracy was working at deflating the balloon.

Steven (left) and Tracy (middle) unload the balloon as Gary (right) sets up the basket. I love how I've caught them in the moment.

Tracy's mom, Jan, piloted the balloon that they actually did fly on Saturday. Since the race (where they chase the 'hare') was canceled because of weather, it was more of a pleasure flight. The guy she took up had a camera and was taking lots of pictures. The woman in orange waving, Scotty Cobb, was part of her crew. She and her husband, Don, were in the chase car.

Gary Sines ponders for a few moments before deciding to inflate the Bubblegum Machine balloon. Even though he's looking my direction, he wasn't actually looking at me.

Steven and Tracy strap the balloon to the basket. You have to make sure that the lines aren't twisted.

After the balloon has been stretched out, they use a fan to blow air into it. This is the air billowing in. They ended up having to borrow a fan, since the one with Gary (Jan's chase car took the other one and I believe the gas can) ran out of gas. At one point, he almost backed over it with the trailer, but luckily, he heard us yelling to stop.

The wind blows as Melissa holds the mouth of the balloon open.

Tracy works at retying some of the lines after he realized that they were twisted.

As the balloon inflates, Tracy fixes the vent at the top of the balloon. The metallic blurry thing on the left is the burner and the brown blurry thing is part of the basket.

After the balloon is filled, they heat the air inside. Steven helps hold the mouth of the balloon open while Gary uses the burner to heat the air. It never occurred to me that riding in a balloon would be hot, but when that burner blows, it is hot. I guess that's why ballooners wear hats.

Gary, out of focus in the foreground, and Tracy in the background. I think, at this point, I was in the balloon. They'd tethered it and each of us got to go up and down in it.

Taken while Melissa and I were up in the balloon. Melissa is smiling down at her husband, Steven.

After they'd deflated and quickly rolled up (because rain was starting to splatter) the balloon, they were sticking it back into the trailer. Tracy is in the process of kicking it a little farther into the trailer so that they can shut the door.

The Woman Who Inspired Champions

2010-09-29T23:45:00.126-05:00

I am, of course, speaking about Nadia Comăneci. She was the very first gymnast to score a perfect 10. She did it in 1976 at the age of 14.

Left: © Jerry Cooke; Middle: © Steve Powell/Allsport; Right: © Tony Duffy/Allsport

When I was a very little girl, I remember watching Nadia perform and she inspired me to be a gymnast. Of course, I never became a gymnast. My family moved too often and didn't quite put a priority on me being active in sports. But I still remember loving this girl who poured her heart out when she performed.

Watching this routine today, I still am moved by how good she was. What a thing to remember when you're 5 years old... I really miss how they used to do that move where they would whack their legs on the bottom bar and bounce back up, and where they would do a cherry drop off the bottom bar. Now it's all about power when they perform.

When someone asked her about her 'perfect' routine, Nadia is quoted as saying, "During my routine and even after it, I did not think it was all that perfect. I thought it was pretty good, but athletes don’t think about history when making history. They think about what they’re doing, and that’s how it gets done." And that's pretty awesome. It's just about getting it done. That's a life lesson. It's just about getting it done.

Why did I think about this? A conversation about Mary Lou Retton, who was coached by the same coach, Béla Károlyi. I loved Mary Lou, too, after all she was the first American woman to win the women's all-around Olympic title. Just watching her perform, even today, she was good/beautiful.

Check out her floor exercise, the height on her jumps!

A friend of mine let me in on the fact that the floor has springs which allow greater bounce and cushion those jumps. Here's her gold medal winning vault (a perfect 10.00).

It was so exciting when she won. I remember her going on late night TV and doing her vault again. And doing it in the movie Scrooged as Tiny Tim. And one of my best memories from after those Olympics is my childhood favorite pair of tennis shoes. They were Pony high tops that Mary Lou had endorsed.

I just loved them. They were light-weight and springy. And I wore them out (I've only really done that to 2 pairs of shoes). I tried to buy a second pair (because I'm like that), but they were limited edition and I was too late. But I love those shoes. The picture on the right is what I remember them somewhat looking like, except that they were all leather and all white.

Picture of Károlyi. Caption information unavailable.

And I can't talk about Béla Károlyi without talking about Kerri Strug. Part of what is affectionately called the Magnificent Seven, Kerri clinched the US's first all-around team gold medal with an amazing vault that she performed injured. She ended up with a score of 9.712, but, in the process, Strug sprained her ankle and tore two ligaments.

Project 365 - W25

2010-09-27T14:06:00.003-05:00

Week 25. I've been pretty busy.

Monday. One of the photographers in Staff, Ally, has been having problems when going out on assignment. Her insecurity and perfectionism contributed to her psyching herself out and barely producing useable images. I was getting frustrated. She was getting frustrated. Other editors were getting frustrated. So I approached her about going out on a shoot together so that we could talk about how we approached things, etc. We were going to go to the Heritage Festival on Sunday, but it was cancelled. So on this Monday, I went out with Ally on a reshoot of people working with bacon for the paper.

-- Side note: stupid article on bacon! The number of shoots they had us do (which were a pain in the tuccous) and then don't link the article to the multimedia. And the pictures that ended up in the paper were pretty lame. The frustrations of photo editing! --

So, Ally and I journeyed to Addison's where we watched Cody Burnett prepare a bacon sandwich for lunch. It looked SO good. I got really hungry watching him and the other chef, Sean Jeffries, prepare their food.

I think hanging out with her and talking really helped her to get over her hump and not be so nervous. Since then, she's told me that her shoots were going better, so I'm glad my mentoring helped.

Tuesday. It may seem unremarkable, but this is what I've got for today. I followed a squirrel around, looking out my back window, and using my 70-250/4.5 lens.

Wednesday. So, on Sunday, Vince called me and asked me about invites for our upcoming special Song and Praise service. I took copious notes and inadvertently misunderstood when he described the date. He told me, what I thought was the week after the HOPE Classic (the 10th), but he meant the very next day. So, I got to Midweek with our snazzy invites (which I really like the finished product) and discovered the date was wrong. Luckily, though, Vince moved the date to the 10th. It also gave the performers more time to perfect things.

Thursday. Which dog is it? It's Dudley, snuggled in the pillows and my throw blanket. He has this habit of loving to snuffle in a blanket and rub his face. My dad's theory is that they're "spreading their scent" but I think it more has to do with something akin to getting a good scratch when you have an itch, or a good head massage. One of those things ecstatic 'ah!' moments. (The same reason that Riley loves to rub my bookcase after a bath, because of that satisfied itch moment.)

Friday. For devo, the girls, sans Kim, who was working on the final touches for her newly-opening salon, were supposed to meet out at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park at 6:30 to go for a hike. I show up and no one is there. I call Tracy and she is at ShaJuanda's, waiting to give her a ride. Tracy waited until about 7 and then headed out to meet me. I took this picture while I was waiting, the boys on a picnic table. It was a little annoying, because no one else came, even the one who suggested the activity (ShaJuanda). Tracy was particularly ticked, even though ticked for Tracy is simmering with frustration. That's as 'explosive' as it gets.

Saturday. I went hot air ballooning (my blog post here) and this was my favorite picture from the day. I love that I got them looking into the inflating balloon. I waited for this moment and I am so happy that it worked out.

Sunday. Another one of those days where I didn't really do anything that stuck out to me, so I took a picture of some stuffed animals in my room. I've been debating whether or not to give them to the puppies. Haven't decided yet.

Up and Over It

2010-09-27T00:33:00.002-05:00

The internet is a vast savannah of both the sublime and the mundane. One could spend years and never find every page that exists. And more are being created every day. But in this potential desert of idiotcy, I occasionally come across some pretty cool stuff. And this is one of them. I just had to smile when I watched it.

A little hand jig.

From their website:

Suzanne Cleary and Peter Harding are two of the most talented and innovative Irish Dancers in the world. They first met on the Irish Dance competition circuit where between them they accumulated World, North American, All Scotland and Great British championship titles. At 17 the couple were head-hunted by Riverdance and after only six months were chosen to lead the show as the productions’ youngest ever understudies.

Cleary and Harding went on to become one of Riverdance’s most exciting couples and received regular training with the Moscow Folk ballet. They have performed at the Gershwin Theatre on Broadway, Hammersmith Apollo, London, Radio City Music Hall and at the United Nations to name but a few. Between them, they have toured every continent and have taught master-classes throughout the UK and Europe.

After four years with Riverdance, Cleary & Harding toured with Magic of the Dance where they were soon appointed Artistic Directors. It was here the couple began experimenting with Irish Dance, bending the rules of the form and taking inspiration from other dance styles. Up and Over it! is their first solo outing as they bring audiences something previously unseen in Irish Dance.

Project 365 - W24

2010-09-20T14:39:00.001-05:00

Week 24. Okay, so I love my dogs.

Monday. I started out this photo session after Riley had been playing with these nyla-bones I'd gotten them. After a long day of photo editing - very busy! and partially irritating - I was finally home and Riley was asking be to play with him, by gnawing on the bone and growling loudly at it. Riley then was hard at work on the bone, and I took pictures of his gnawing. Then there were pictures of Cullen and Dudley. I liked this one the best.

Tuesday. When I took the Duds into the vet last Friday, because of his swollen eye, I set up an appointment for the boys to get their yearly shots. This picture is Riley at the vet, waiting for the offer of a treat. It turned out that Riley didn't need his shots (got them in February when I took him in because of his pre-hot spots). But I was able to get a replacement for his license and his rabies tag (that Dad lost out at Lake Stockton last year). I love the Ri-Ri's ears!

Wednesday. CPOY (College Photographer of the Year) is an international photography competition that MU hosts every year. On Wednesday night, they had an informational session about the new submission process and then some professionals on hand to review what we're considering submitting. This is a picture of Patrick Fallon getting his pictures reviewed.

Thinking about submitting to CPOY feels so intimidating. It shouldn't be, but I want to shoot myself in the foot. It's like applying for the Brussels program - that fear that I won't be picked. It makes me want to put off facing that discomfort and not deal with it. Why am I so human?

Thursday. So I took the boys for a walk downtown, after my beat meeting. (And this was annoying! I forgot to fill the meter and in less than 10 minutes, it got hit by the meter maid and I got a ticket! Stupid woman. This semester I've actually seen her. Felt like saying something snotty, but I know it's her job. I just find it annoying that she doesn't merely walk around and gives tickets, she *drives* around, hops out of the car, and gives tickets. And she especially likes to ticket around Lee Hills Hall. So nice, isn't she? She doesn't hit any of the other streets right there, but she hits Lee Hills *twice* a day.) This is a picture from our walk - they're repaving the sidewalk.

Friday. So Duds is done with his eye ointment. Looking at this picture, you'd never know his eye was swollen. Not as in focus as my other pictures, but it was taken with my iPhone. I would really love it if they would develop some software so that the pictures I took with my phone would have close to the sharpness of my digital camera.

Saturday. This is a reenactment of my reaction to MU's miraculous win over San Diego State. I was driving in my car when it happened (so I don't think I closed my eyes - at least there wasn't an accident as a result of it, if it did happen). I don't normally scream but I screamed. Whooped more than once. And smiled broadly... I blogged about it, here.

Sunday. Today, I decided to take the boys out to the dog park. Except I went to the park on Garth, rather than the one out a Twin Lakes. Big mistake. That's not a trick of the light. The water is that pea-green color. And yes, Dudley's fur did turn green, the parts that were in the water.

Dudley was thirsty, so he drank a lot of this lovely green water, and it made him sick to where he didn't eat for 2 days and is still eating grass almost a week later.

Supposedly, the green film on the water was caused by an additive that the City added to the pond to kill the algae, but a guy at the park said the water wasn't yucky like this until *after* the City added it to the water. Poor Duds.

Woo-Hoo!

2010-09-19T00:56:00.000-05:00

Caption: With his teammates and coaches celebrating behind him, T.J. Moe runs in the winning touchdown during the last minute of the fourth quarter of the San Diego State game on Saturday. The Tigers beat the Aztecs 27-24. ¦ Sarah Midgorden

Okay, so I'm driving in my car and listening to the game on the radio. MU was down by 1 against San Diego State with about 5 minutes to go.

I go through Taco Bueno's drive-thru and when I turn the radio up, MU is now down by 4 with 1:58 left in the game. The announcers are summing up how this was the first time that the Aztecs had beaten a BCS team in c.25 years, these like crazy statistics that highlight just how bad this loss really is for MU.

And all this because they like to choke in the 4th quarter.

I've just passed through the intersection at Stadium and Providence and MU has the ball. I'm thinking, 'they can do this,' even as I'm thinking, 'yeah,' look at that half-empty stadium, 'I'm not sure I wouldn't have left.' 'This is so sad. How could they lose to San Diego State?!'

And then it happened. The announcer says that T.J. Moe is at the 30... the 20... and then, how did he call it? Not the endzone but something else. But what it meant was - they scored a touchdown. I let out a yelp and waited to make sure that no flags were thrown. And:

YES!!! (I think I startled Dudley with my joyful noise.)

With less than a minute in the game, MU scored a TD and pulled it out. For the win.

This is me, re-enacting my reaction in the car.

Go, Tigers!

Pictures from the Boston Globe -- Youth Olympics in Singapore

2010-09-15T00:28:00.000-05:00

Pictures from the Youth Olympics, held in Singapore.

Caption: Darren Choy of Singapore carries the Youth Olympic torch on his way to ignite the Youth Olympic Flame at the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Youth Olympics at The Float at Marina Bay on August 14, 2010 in Singapore. (Adam Pretty/Getty Images)

I absolutely loved this picture. It's one of those that I wish I had in my portfolio.

Caption: Greek actress Ino Menegaki delivers the flame to the first runner inside the stadium in Ancient Olympia on Friday July 23, 2010. The flame was bound for the Aug. 14-26 Singapore inaugural Youth Olympic Games. (AP Photo/Dimitri Messinis)

Caption: Singapore Youth Olympic Committee Chairman and IOC Vice-President, Ng Ser Miang arrives at the Singapore Changi Airport with a safety lantern containing the Youth Olympic flame on Thursday Aug. 5, 2010, in Singapore. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

Caption: Fireworks explode during the opening ceremony of the Youth Olympic Games at the Marina Bay floating platform in Singapore on August 14, 2010. (REUTERS/Tim Chong)

Caption: Costumed performers are seen during the opening Youth Olympic Games ceremony on Saturday Aug. 14, 2010 in Singapore. (AP Photo/Sam Kang Li)

I absolutely love this one, too.

Caption: Lautaro Diaz of Argentina, center, runs out of the water after the swimming leg of the Men's Triathlon at the 2010 Youth Olympics on Monday Aug. 16, 2010, in Singapore. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

Caption: The chasing group of cyclists contest the first lap in the Men's Triathlon on day two of the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympics at East Coast Park on August 16, 2010 in Singapore. (Mark Dadswell/Getty Images)

Caption: Song Jong Hun of the Republic of Korea (left) competes with Leonardo Affede of Italy during the Cadet Male Individual Sabre final at the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore on August 15, 2010. Song Jong Hun won the gold medal after defeating Leonardo Affede of Italy by 15-8. (SYOGOC/AFP/Getty Images)

Caption: Jenna Rose Burkert of the United States (right) wrestles against Christiana Victor of Nigeria during the women's 60-kilogram freestyle wrestling at the Youth Olympics on Monday, Aug. 16, 2010 in Singapore. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

I'm not the only one who thought that Victor looks like she's used a few steroids.

Caption: Elman Mukhtarov of Azerbaijan competes against Nurbek Hakkulov of Uzbekistan in the final of the Men's Greco Roman 50kg Wrestling competition on day one of the Youth Olympics at the International Convention Center on August 15, 2010 in Singapore. (Mark Dadswell/Getty Images)

Caption: Russia's Andrey Ushakov swims on his way to winning the gold medal in the men's 200m freestyle event at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore on August 16, 2010. (REUTERS/Vivek Prakash)

Pictures from the Boston Globe -- Afghanistan

2010-09-14T23:19:00.001-05:00

Some of the pictures from an on-going series of pictures from Afghanistan:

Caption: Abdul Qahar, an interpreter with Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, finds one of the few shaded spots during Operation Big Wave in Khanagawr, Afghanistan, Aug. 18, 2010. During the operation the men spent two days in direct sunlight with temperatures reaching more than 120 degrees. The operation was conducted to disrupt the enemy from using supply lines to bring weapons and fighters into Nawa. (U.S. Marine Corps/Sgt. Mark Fayloga)

Caption: The tomb of Sultan Mohammed Telai, which was destroyed during the Afghan civil war in 1990's is lit by setting sun on Friday, July 23, 2010 in Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic)

Caption: Items for sale in the Nader Pashtun Market in Kabul, Afghanistan, where virtually everything comes from China. While the headlines focus on the U.S.-led war against the Taliban, China's spreading global footprint has become highly visible in Afghanistan, and the U.S. is said to welcome it. Photo taken on June 28, 2010. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

Caption: U.S. Marines carry a comrade wounded by an improvised explosive device (IED) to a waiting medevac helicopter, near the town of Marjah in Helmand Province on August 21, 2010. (REUTERS/Bob Strong)

Caption: U.S. Army soldiers with Task Force Thor Route Clearance Patrol from 23rd Engineering Company, Airborne detonate an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) that they discovered during a day-long route clearance mission July 7, 2010 near Khakriz, Afghanistan. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Caption: A medevac UH-60A Black Hawk helicopter from the 101st Airborne division, Task Force Destiny, is reflected in the glasses of a ground staff member during a refueling operation at Kandahar Air Field (KAF) in Kandahar province, August 29, 2010. (REUTERS/Oleg Popov)

Caption: An Afghan man grieves hanging onto the coffin of his brother inside a vehicle in the outskirts of Herat on August 30, 2010. On August 29, police found the bodies of five members of a campaign team for female candidate Fawzya Galani, days after 10 of them were abducted by the Taliban, officials said. (Aref Karimi/AFP/Getty Images)

Caption: U.S. Army soldiers from Bravo Company 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, participate in a joint patrol with Afghan Army soldiers near Forward Operating Base Howz-e-Madad, in Zhari district, Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2010. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

Caption: An unidentified member of the NATO-led ISAF keeps watch during a change-of-command ceremony at the ISAF headquarters in Kabul July 4, 2010. (REUTERS/Ahmad Masood)

Caption: An Afghan girl reads the holy Quran, as a woman, right, offers prayers at a mosque during the month of Ramadan in Kabul, Afghanistan on Monday, Aug 30, 2010. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

Caption: Afghan girls pose for their mother at Qargha lake just outside Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Aug. 6, 2010. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic)

Caption:Afghan families, hit by the floods which have devastated Pakistan, work to rid their homes of mud, on August 7, 2010 in the south of Kabul, Afghanistan. More than 500 families have been forced to evacuate their homes due to flooding, which has originated from the country's border with Pakistan. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)

Caption: A US soldier of Charlie Company 2-508 PIR Second Platoon, Second BTC, 101st ABN Div. (Air Assault) attaches a yellow flower to his helmet during a joint patrol with National Security Forces in the Arghandab Valley of Kandahar province on August 3, 2010. (YURI CORTEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

Caption: US soldiers of HHC 2-508 PIR 4 BTC, 82nd Airborne sleep at the heliport as they wait for helicopter transport to fly back home from the volatile and dangerous Kandahar's province of Arghandab Valley on August 15, 2010. (YURI CORTEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

Caption: Soldiers from 1st Battalion the Royal Gurkha Rifles patrol through a village in Nahr e Saraj, Helmand on June 30, 2010. (BAY ISMOYO/AFP/Getty Images)

Caption: A U.S. Navy corpsman stands in a pool of blood while tending to a solider that was wounded by an IED blast at the Kandahar Role 3 Hospital July 12, 2010 at Kandahar Air Field in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The hospital, one of the most advanced in the country, recently moved into a modern, custom-built fortified building on the sprawling airbase that serves as the nerve center for the NATO military effort in southwestern Afghanistan. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Caption: US Soldiers of Bravo Company 2/508th PIR, 4th BTC, 82 Airborne patrol with Afghan National Army soldiers in Kukaran in Kandahar province on August 6, 2010. (YURI CORTEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

Caption: A soldier with an injured ankle from the US Army's 1-320 Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division is assisted past his burning M-ATV armored vehicle after it struck an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) on a road near Combat Outpost Nolen in the Arghandab Valley in this picture taken July 23, 2010. None of the four soldiers in the vehicle were seriously injured in the explosion. (REUTERS/Bob Strong)

Caption: Australian soldiers carry a coffin of Pvt. Nathan Bewes at their base in Tarin Kowt, Uruzgan province, south of Kabul, Afghanistan on July 12, 2010. Bewes died in an improvised explosive device blast in Uruzgan. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic)

Caption: Major Josh Bowman (left), Commander of A Company 1st Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles, talks to local residents at their compound during Operation Kapcha Door in Nahr e Saraj, in Helmand, on June 26, 2010. (BAY ISMOYO/AFP/Getty Images)
Major Bowman was killed by a rogue Afghan soldier just two weeks after this picture was taken, shot while he slept.

Caption: Afghan youths escape increasing summer temperatures by visiting the Qarga reservoir on July 9, 2010 in a suburb of Kabul, Afghanistan. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)

Pictures from the Boston Globe -- Pakistan

2010-09-14T22:13:00.000-05:00

I looked at The Boston Globe's blog this weekend, and wanted to share some pictures! It's stuff like this that is why I love photography.

From the floods in Pakistan:

Caption: A man marooned by flood waters, alongside his livestock, waves towards an Army helicopter for relief handouts in the Rajanpur district of Pakistan's Punjab province on August 9, 2010. (REUTERS/Stringer)

Caption: A Syrian Muslim girl stands at the top of Mount Qassioun, which overlooks Damascus city, during sunset and prays before eating her Iftar meal on August 22, 2010. (REUTERS/Khaled al-Hariri)

Caption: Pakistani villagers stand on the remains of a bridge washed away by heavy flooding in Bannu in northwest Pakistan on Sunday, Aug. 8, 2010. (AP Photo/Ijaz Mohammad)

Caption: Pakistani workers are reflected on furniture as they rebuild homes in the flood-affected town of Sanawa, Punjab province, Pakistan on Thursday Sept. 2, 2010. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Caption: A girl floats her brother across flood waters while salvaging valuables from their flood ravaged home on August 7, 2010 in the village of Bux Seelro near Sukkur, Pakistan. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

Caption: A Pakistani Army soldier rests between air rescue operations on August 9, 2010 in the Muzaffargarh district in Punjab, Pakistan. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

Caption: Trucks transporting relief goods are blocked on the road by Pakistani farmers demanding that the government irrigate their lands in Shikarpur on September 3, 2010. Fresh floods in southern Pakistan are snaring at least a million people displaced by earlier flooding, adding to the huge problems faced by the underfunded relief effort, UN aid agencies warned. (ADEK BERRY/AFP/Getty Images)

Caption: Mohammad Ramzan, a flood victim, places his hand on the door that was left after his house was washed away by flood in the Mehmood Kot village in Muzaffargarh district of Pakistan's Punjab province September 3, 2010. (REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood)

Caption: A boy who is a victim of the flood rests on his bed at a relief camp in Pakistan's Muzaffargarh district of Punjab province September 2, 2010. (REUTERS/Damir Sagolj)

Caption: Pakistani men affected by floods ride on a boat strapped to a truck as they travel in Muzaffargarh district, Punjab province, Pakistan on Friday Sept. 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Caption: Survivors wade through floodwater to return their home in Sujawat, Sindh province, Southern Pakistan, Sept 4, 2010. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Caption: Flood victims queue for aid provided by Sitara Chemical Industries Ltd in Sanawan, Punjab province Pakistan, on September 5, 2010. (CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images)

Caption: A boy helps his father rebuild their flood-damaged house in Muzaffargarh district, Punjab province, Pakistan on Tuesday Aug. 31, 2010. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Project 365 - Week 23

2010-09-13T13:40:00.090-05:00

Week 23. More action shots. And other blogs about photo editing.

Today I got the "pleasure" of working on Labor Day - see my other blog post where I complain about that - and getting a nice migraine in the process. I could have had some nice Labor Day picnic pictures, as my b.t. had a picnic, but, no, I was at home feeling like my left eyeball was having a thumb dug into it and wanting to ralph. I took this picture of the picture of Brenden, because I like to have pictures for my contacts. Since I didn't have one, I took a picture of his picture on the board. It was one of many that I took. They're up there to help us put faces to names and to help communication in the newsroom.Brenden is my co-editor for the day, but he's lucky and doesn't have to come in at 9 am but instead of 2 pm. Yes, I am a whiney weenie complaining about going in at 9 am. I know this. But at this point in my life, after years of getting up and being at work at 8 am, and after several years of grad school screwing up my sleep pattern and distorting what seems like going to be early (12 am instead of 9 pm), 9 am IS early.

So, I figured out why the dogs have been getting out of the yard this week. It's not that I haven't been locking the gate, it's that Riley has figured out that pulling on the pliers will open the gate. I caught him in the act. I was NOT pleased. But secretly - I will never tell him that - I'm impressed at his ingenuity.

So as part of a deeper education into the rules for photographing in MO's courts, we had a panel discussion today with NAMES. The picture is slightly out of focus, but I took it on the sly so as to not be obvious in what I was doing. I probably didn't need to worry, but I'm a dork.

Anyway, the panel was in response (mostly) to a classmate's taking a picture of the jury last year -- That was a fire storm of potential consequences! I mean, at one point, the judge, whose court she shot in, barred anyone affiliated with The Missourian from being in the courtroom. Big deal because this was a big murder. This guy, William Clinch, lay in wait for his ex-brother-in-law, in a McDonald's parking lot, and shot him, when he was on the way for supervised visit with his kids. During the trial, Clinch testified that he lied to his family, waited for Bohannon to appear, shot him in the buttock and then chased him down in the parking lot and shot him again. With him on the ground gurgling, he shot Bohannon twice more in the head. Really gruesome, and not a typical thing to happen in Columbia, Missouri. (Clinch was eventually found guilty.)

After much eating crow, aka letters of apology, by the Missourian's Executive Editor, its director of photography, the photo editor, and Chris, the judge rescinded his ban on everyone except Chris, because he felt like her letter was a series of rationalizations, which it pretty much was. You can read it, if you like, in her blog post. The matter eventually got resolved, with Chris writing a second letter (which was much better about just apologizing and not giving a reason why the mistakkes were made) and the judge accepting her apology.

With everything I know about the situation, it (at least the picture-taking part) could have been a mistake I could have made. So the panel was definitely informational and I'm glad they were there - to explain the rationale behind the rules, so I look at it the right way. Prohibitions on even the appearance of photographing the jury so that the jury doesn't have to worry about any type of reprocussions for their service, so that it won't affect the judgments they make... It totally makes sense, but it wouldn't necessarily be a way I would have thought about it before all this happened. Before: blurry = unidentifiable. But for a juror sitting there, they don't know that. Most people don't *try* to take blurry pictures of people, so why would a professional photographer do it on purpose?

Took the boys to the dog park. They had a blast and I had fun taking their pictures. And, it turns out, that one of the pictures I took (not this one, but this one) is going to be used with a Vox article.

Well, as I wrote in my other post, I just felt like taking pictures today and so I did. I caught this one and liked it. Today was a really good day. Plus, chocolate-covered strawberries!!!

Today, I wanted to capture something to honor the memories of those lost on September 11th. It's been 9 years. And it is something that I think I will remember my whole life. One of those national psyche-changing moments. But, after blogging all the things that came to mind about that day, I chose to use this, a picture of a chocolate-covered strawberry. One of my favorite things to eat. Thinking about that day, remembering my sadness, I wanted to end the day with something happy. So I ate Bertolli's Shrimp, Asparagus and Penne dinner - one of my favorites and indulged in some strawberries. I don't know how many but it was at least 4.

On Saturday, Susan called me and asked if I could take her daughter, Adriannah, to girl scouts on Sunday. (The time of the meeting conflicted with their monthly bible talk leaders' meeting.) It was a nice day and I wanted to take the dogs to the park. I remembered that Adriannah loves dogs, so I picked her up early and went to a park near where her pack meeting was. There was a kids jungle gym there and I got the idea of having the dogs go down the slide. We laughed a lot and I picked Dudley's picture because, out of the 3 dogs, Dudley was the one that just stepped up and went down the slide. The other two dogs needs a little nudge, especially Cullen. He can be such a chicken sometimes. Just a really sensitive dog.

Irish Fest 2010!

2010-09-12T02:18:00.000-05:00

Image by Kevin Gilbert.
I am proud that I am Irish. My great-grandparents on my father's side immigrated from Ireland. I am also proud that I am Canadian. My grandparents on my mother's side immigrated from Canada. Their ancestors actually arrived on the Mayflower and fought in the American Revolution. I am also Scottish - my mother is of Armstrong stock. I also come from Germany (Grabske and Trefz) and Sweden. Gotta love the melting pot.

Labor Day weekend, they had the 8th Annual Kansas City Irish Fest. After the Jubilee, I met my parents down at Crown Center for the festivities.

'Funny' side note. I was already downtown, at Union Station, because of lunch after the Jubilee, and I ended up driving about 20 minutes both ways to run home and change my pants, shoes, and get the ticket. For some reason I thought the Fest was in Independence. Hah. [I sigh.]

Well, I said I joined my parents, I actually joined my (step)mom and my niece. My dad "already had been there seven hours" and as soon as I got there, he went home.

First off, the O'Riada Academy of Irish Dance performed. Fun stuff. It amazes me how high they jump while keeping their upper body totally still.

A few pics:

What did I say about the jumping?

My mom told me that that curly hair - it's a wig.

Another bit of trivia from mom: those costumes can cost upwards of $1,000.

A crowd pleaser: they incorporated the Moonwalk into their routine. Here, he's using an invisible rope to pull her across the stage.

Part of the last dance.

In honor of the event, they dyed the water green. This takes place right after the dancing expo. I really like how this picture is composed. I think the girl walking on the fountain makes the picture for me.

This cracked me up - this guy was squirting these kids with water and they were begging for more.

I enjoyed so much watching these kids play in the fountain with utter abandon.

This little girl, Lily, was cracking me up with how she played. She stepped on the spickots, reached in to try to figure out where the water came from, and did things like this...

There were lots of different costumes, green hair, and things like this, a woman wearing a hat her daughter made her.

A real life piper! Denis New, of Arklow, County Wicklow, Ireland. I loved how his neck bulged when he played.

The pin on the kilt - took quite a few pictures to finally get this balanced correctly.

One of the many performers at the Irish Fest.

Remembering September 11, 2010

2010-09-11T17:30:00.001-05:00

So, 9 years ago today, on a Tuesday, 2,996 people died when stupid people, minds twisted with hate, murdered them by flying 3 planes into the towers of the World Trade Center and into the Pentagon. (This number also includes those people on the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania, who saved lives because they fought back -- "Let's roll."

Today, on MSNBC, they replayed NBC's coverage, "9/11 As It Happened," from the morning, coverage like what I watched while I was getting dressed for work. Because that's where I was when I found out the Towers had been hit. Ironing a shirt, getting ready for work. Looking at it going, 'That wasn't an accident, there's no way that was an accident.'

(c) James Nachtwey
They had actual footage of the second jet approaching and smashing into the South Tower. They were interviewing (via the phone) a woman from the area and Jane Pauley sitting there prattling on and there it goes. When I was watching it, I was like, 'that's the second plane,' and as I reached for my remote to rewind it, they showed the South Tower exploding. You hear Matt Lauer say, "Oh, My God," and Pauley's oblivious. It made me cry all over again, because it was so intentional.

And I remember feeling so mad at how they kept calling it an accident. When it was so obvious to me that it was on purpose. On purpose. On purpose.

Watching that footage, I felt mad that she was oblivious. How could you not see that? Notice that? Maybe she wasn't looking at the screen but how could you not look at that Tower burning? I couldn't stop looking, even before the North Tower was hit.

So calm when reporting that the South Tower fell.

(c)James Nachtwey

And later, as they showed the North Tower collapsing, after the South Tower had collapsed, she "believed" that it was the tower first hit. Even though their camera angle didn't change!

(c)James Nachtwey
Images of people in shock. Tired, covered in debris.

This image, this footage is stuck in my mind. They ran, hard, to get away from the debris.

And I remember praying that they would find people, after the Towers collapsed. Praying for some sort of miracle, that people would have survived that. There were a few, like those fire fighters who helped that older woman (Josephine Harris) down the stairs because she couldn't walk, and that's what saved their lives. When the Tower collapsed, that part of the stairwell somehow didn't. All 14 people in it survived.

I remember when they pulled Mychal Judge (FDNY Chaplin) out of the rubble. He was dead. So sad.

(c) James Nachtwey
Bush with his, "I can hear you, the rest of the world can hear you
and the people who knocked these buildings down
will hear all of us soon!" to the fire fighters of NYC. I actually liked Bush for a minute after that, because his bravado is what the country needed at that moment. My affection didn't last long when he and his administration manipulated people's fear for their own agenda, lied and said 'trust us, we have proof about WMDs' but then never supplied them, and influenced congress to go after the man who insulted his daddy and who had nothing to do with al Qaeda or bin Ladin.

Suspending air travel. Discussions of why the towers - symbols of capitalism. Brokaw calling the United States the most powerful country in the world.

(c)James Nachtwey
I remember, on the third day, it rained. And Chad talked about that at church, how he felt like that it was God crying because of all those people that were dead. And crying because of how hard those men worked to try to find somebody. For nothing.

(c) James Nachtwey

And I remember thanking God, because I know he was there, with those people, before they died. I know he was there, helping them to feel some comfort. If you listen to the tapes, you don't hear screams of terror, even right before the end. And I'm grateful that God gave them that peace.

A friend of my friend, Shawna, was in the South Tower. When the North Tower was hit, they started evacuating the South Tower. And then they gave the 'all clear,' so she and her co-workers started to head back upstairs. They all, all but her, climbed into the elevator, but something told her not to get on. They were waiting, all impatiently, and she hesitated. And then the South Tower was struck and the cable of the elevator was cut. It dropped to the ground and everyone in the elevator died. I believe that something that held her back was God.

And God kept the Towers mostly empty - there should have been more people in them. On any given day, there were usually about 50,000 people in or around the Towers. But people were at meetings or late for work or something like that. Ian Thorpe, the Thorpedo, swimmer extraordinaire, was supposed to be on top of one of the Towers when it was hit, but he and his friends weren't, because he forgot his camera back at the hotel. You might want to wonder why people were there at all, or how God 'chose' the people that died that day, but I don't try to understand, because I don't see the big picture of all eternity, nor am I working to make sure that the most people get to heaven. I just focus on how God was there and how much he spared folks.

And I cry for the rescue dogs that burned their paws, or breathed toxic fumes and died, or later developed cancer because of everything they snuffed in. I cry for them, because they didn't hesitate, ever.

I remember all the people that swarmed to give blood. And how people decided to start displaying flags. To show the terrorists that they didn't break us.

And the uproar at KOMU because the station manager stupidly didn't want to allow the anchors to wear flag pins. I understand his reasons for doing it: to deliver the news "as free from outside influences as possible" and that "news broadcasts are not the place for personal statements of support for any cause... no matter how deserving the cause seems to be." But I think he was wrong - because patriotism isn't an external thing, and the idea of journalistic neutrality is a myth.

I remember stories of the polluted air (asbestos and toxic fumes), even though the EPA said it was safe, and the tragedy of Cantor Fitzgerald. And how now, people like my cousin, Mark, who was stationed at the Armory in NYC and who breathed the air while looking for survivors and then the dead, how they're starting to develop lung problems because of it. Here's another article about the air problems.

(c)James Nachtwey

(c)James Nachtwey
I also remember that Christmas driving by the broken Pentagon, snapping a picture.

I was surprised that the French brothers' documentary, that originally started out as a piece on a rookie firefighter and turned into an emotional window to the moments of the day, wasn't shown today. You get to see those brave men go up the stairs, head to their deaths, to hear the noise of the bodies hitting the ground, and the fear that was there when the Towers collapsed. And I cry every time I watch it (more than once), even though I know that both brothers survived, when they're reunited because it's so emotional. If you haven't seen it, I would highly recommend it.

And to this day, I still tell fire fighters and police officers, "Thank you." Because just like those people who died that day, they would risk their life for me in a second. And that deserves a 'thank you.'

(c)James Nachtwey

(c)James Nachtwey

Wandering Around Downtown

2010-09-10T18:44:00.053-05:00

So, after class today, I decided to wander around downtown for no apparent reason other than I felt like wandering around and taking pictures. No real destination in mind, no goal. I just felt like going out and taking images of things I found interesting. I took just my body and my 55-250 zoom and went a walkin'. And I had fun. It's been a while since I've just taken pictures of things, not to commemorate something or because I had to, but because I just felt like it. And it was fun.

I mean, I enjoyed photography for the joy of looking at something differently and capturing that image. It's been a while. With all the school work, just that pressure in 'what I ought to do,' it really zapped my creativity. It wasn't supposed to, but it was nice to snap a picture of someone doing something weird without feeling compelled to get their name.

I was walking behind the guy and he just started walking like that, with his hands behind his back. Who walks like that? By choice? It's not comfortable...

The second picture, they're out in Peace Park, stringing up this line between trees. A slack line, they tell me, because it's "comfortable to lean on."

Even though, that brings me to another quandary that I've found in myself, one I want to break myself of: wanting to take a picture but feeling like I'm intruding. Capturing people going about their day and somehow I'm invading their privacy. I feel I need to break that habit because I feel like their story needs to be told, even if they don't tell me their name. I want to save my own life experience, if nothing else.

Like today, as I was driving, there's this guy sitting on some steps with his dog. I loved that they were just chilling there, waiting on the steps of this attorney's office. I wish I'd taken the picture. Because it was this calm contented moment for them. And I like moments like that. But I didn't - not because I was driving, but because the guy might see me do it.

This one was on the down low. I didn't want her to see me take it. What did I expect her to do if she saw me? Not like me because I caught her in a moment? Is that it?

I saw this girl with *not natural* hair. It doesn't look bad, but I don't like it any more than I like fake blonde hair...

Because of the peeling paint. That's a lot of peeling paint. And it seems like I only remember it happening on Fords.

Coexist, people!!! I actually think this bumper stick is pretty clever with all the religious symbols displayed in it. Taken on 6th Street.

At The Candy Factory. Isn't it odd that Halloween is over a *month* away and yet already selling Halloween candy? How fresh are those Oreos going to be?

Also in The Candy Factory, taken while I wait for my strawberries. I found out that they've been selling them ALL SUMMER. Arg!

All around downtown Columbia, there are brick streets.

A picture of the insensitive and soon-to-be deaf. Some of those little jerks that like to drive around with their bass pounding so loud that my brain feels like it will explode. Even if I'm sitting in my house. You may feel like 'jerks' is a little strong or a little unforgiving. Maybe. It's those bass-inspired headaches talking.

One of the lights in the parking garage where I park for class. How about those bugs?

I don't understand the name And have no idea what type of food they serve. The name was enough to shout, "Danger! Danger! Will Robinson!"

My journeys led me to luck into chocolate-covered strawberries. One of my all-time favorite treats! From one of the best places around, too: The Candy Factory. I am drooling while I think about it. Why is it that those small privately-owned chocolatiers always have the best chocolate?

Wow - SyFy Has Some Bad B Movies

2010-09-10T18:39:00.000-05:00

Case in point, 'Android Apocalypse.' I hate movies that have you asking questions like, 'Why haven't (the heroes) been shot by the evil killer flying robots?' or 'Why don't just follow the robot guards out when they were recalled, when they completely weren't paying any attention to you, and it's obviously something bad that's going to happen?' Or even at the beginning of the movie, where there's some random kid wandering around outside in the toxic atmosphere and then gets chased by some bad flying robots. And just happens to fall and hit his head on a rock. Why was he outside, when everyone knows that it's toxic? And how did he get outside, anyway? Oh, no, foster false concern about a kid of no consequence to the rest of the film. Just bad writing.

And the acting was bad, too. I remarked on it more than once.

So why was I watching it? Because I kept hoping that it would get better. Foolish girl. After Ogre, you should have known better.

I just want to know why people internationally pay for this slop? That's why they get made, because of the money they generate *outside* the US.

And isn't it great, the hero loses his prejudice towards androids because of the friendship he made with one...

I Heard a Bit of Poetry

2010-09-07T15:46:00.008-05:00

Today I heard A.E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad, part XL quoted. It was very... heartfelt.

Into my heart an air that kills
From yon far country blows:
What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?

That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.

I really like Housman's work. (Photograph, right, by E.O. Hoppe.)
I'm familiar with it because of high school. We read To An Athlete Dying Young, which I really loved, partially because of the imagery that Housman used and partially because of how sad it is:

Today, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.

It's funny those things that you remember from your youth. I can see my teacher clearly, especially this little dance that he used to do. Mr. John. He was a short guy with a white beard and yellow nails from his cigarette smoking. He was one of my favorite teachers in high school. He's probably retired at least, if not passed away (from the smoking). But I wish I could have told him that. That he made an impact. I loved his passion for his craft. And how we analyzed the poetry and how he urged us to think more deeply.

Here's some links about Housman:

The Housman Society, in Bromsgrove, Worcs, England
Article about Housman by the Poetry Foundation
Synopsis by the Academy of American Poets
An article in the Guardian
Literary Criticism articles

And I Had to Work on LABOR DAY

2010-09-07T15:36:00.017-05:00

PDF of the day's edit to be posted here later
For some reason, I guess because they're a newspaper, the Missourian decided that we should work on Labor Day. Even though the rest of the University had the day off because it's a state holiday, and we are a 'state' institution, and for MU employees, it is one of 7 official paid holidays in the year (the others? MLK, Memorial Day, July 4th, Thanksgiving & the day after, and Christmas), I did not, because I was lucky enough to be assigned the Monday morning shift.

So, I woke up with a migraine digging behind my left eye. And it progressively grew worse during the day, until, by the time the day was over, I was starting the feel dizzy and nauseous. Stinky fie! I hate feeling like something is trying to poke my eye out!!!

It was a pretty slow shift. Mostly. There were only 3 photo assignments all day. And one really lame one that shouldn't have been submitted in the first place, since it was for a story they didn't have on the 'budget' (publishing schedule) and the story was covering a store that wasn't even OPEN on Labor Day.

Because it was a slow day, two of our photographers got to wander about Columbia and take pictures (enterprise). The one eventful thing that happened was - there was a shooting over by Stephens Lake.

The photographer of the above photo, Timothy Rice, was actually threatened by someone on the scene. As he tells it, he was simply taking wide shots when this guy came up to him in a very threatening manner, daring him to take him picture again. Even after Tim explained, he said the guy kept throwing "gang signs" and demanding that he 'take his picture!' The guy went so far as to rip off his shirt to brandish his muscles... Who knew Labor Day could be so exciting...

Project 365 - Week 22

2010-09-06T12:36:00.000-05:00

Week 23. School has started. I promise it will not all be pictures of my dogs.

Okay, maybe starting tomorrow it will be something besides my dog.

Okay, so I was wrong. But I took this picture - yesterday's I just really liked how sweet Riley looked when he was sleeping. I took this sleeping picture because of how his neck was bent when sleeping. Riley used to sleep like this all the time, but nowadays, it's a rarity. The neck thing was a symptom of him having problems with his back and since I adopted him 4 years ago, I've taken him to the chiropractor a couple of times, which has definitely helped his back. I lost her number, which I wish I hadn't, because I need to take him back for another visit. Particularly since I asked the vet about his random yelping and he said it's most likely in relation to his back rather than his leg (lack of limp).

I promise myself that tomorrow it will not be one of my dogs. Even if they are one my favorite subjects.

So I was in the Photo Lab on Wednesday and someone mentioned how it's 'photo lunch' that day. Since I would like to feel like more of the group at school, I stayed on campus and journeyed to Shakespeare's for photo lunch. It seemed like most of the people there are not current students but grads. Including Matt Cavanagh. I was surprised he was in town, since I thought he got a job in SE MO.

So, I was in the photo bubble on an off day, after my first 'beat' meeting, to get my picture taken for the editor's board. While I was in there, I caught this picture of Brian expositing about something photoj-related. He was being a teacher, like he should, since it's his job and all. I really like how he's tackling his duties as MU's newest photoj prof.

This is a picture taken on this lucky day, the first day of Jubilee, with me stuck editing in the Photo Bubble. Allison is fiddling with the long lens, mentally prepping to tackle her first football game.

A picture from our dinner at Cheeseburgers in Paradise. I happened across Anthony at the picnic and he hooked me up with Antwon, who was looking for a sister to encourage. Sushila and Ken were there too. This is Sushila's hand. She *must* point out her order on a menu. Simply speaking will not do.

After the Jubilee, I went with the Smiths to Union Station for lunch. They thought there was a dinosaur cafe there, but it turns out it was only a dinosaur exhibit. We had a good lunch at the cafe in Union Station. And then I had to dash off to meet my parents at the Irish Fest. I could have used one of the pics from it, but I chose this one...

Friday Night at the Photo Desk

2010-09-03T18:27:00.011-05:00

So here I am, stuck working at the photo desk at the Missourian. It's my own fault, really, because I wasn't paying attention when I signed up for dates and dug my own grave, so to speak. I'm trying not to feel bitter about people not taking pity on me... Or wanting to be spiteful in the future in case they need help (like switching a shift). Of course, I'll do it, if I can, because that's what Jesus would do, but it's just that yucky sour taste it's left in mouth...

I'm going on little sleep and I'm probably going to be here until at least 9:30-10 editing pictures - arg! Then I get to travel to KC for our bi-annual jubilee.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Well, the high school football games started late so our fair shooters returned later than expected. Here's a couple of photos I edited tonight:

Really love the atmosphere of this picture.

One of the pictures from the game against Rock Bridge High School.

Our shooter for the Hickman game really had a hard time. She suffers from an affliction I have - that of hating failure and being a perfectionist. It was her first football game ever and she was so hard on herself. We were able to get some good images. Yes, there wasn't an overabundance of killer shots, but that comes with practice.

And I didn't get out of there until around 1 am. Cotton pickin!

Hickman pictures by Allison Ziemba.
Rock Bridge pictures by Erin Stubblefield.

So I'm Taking Photo Desk Management

2010-09-03T03:32:00.004-05:00

What's that, you say? It's serving as a photo editor for the Columbia Missourian. I was 'lucky' and ended up with the Monday morning shift, which means I get to be at the Missourian at 9am. Yes, I'm a little bitter because I *hate* Monday mornings especially. I always seem to have a really difficult time sleeping on Sunday night, so Mondays are torturous. I also feel a little bitter because I accidentally signed up for this Friday's shift, the first night of our bi-annual Jubilee. So, not only am I working *on* Labor Day, because even though the whole of rest of campus is celebrating the Labor Day holiday, even though there is no class, etc., the Missourian is still putting out a paper. Oh, joy. Oh, rapture. I am so lucky.

Anyway. Here's the first set of pictures that I edited (with the help of new professor Brian Kratzer). Shot by Taylor Glascock, it features the Missouri Contemporary Ballet's first day of practice after their summer intersession.

I know this feeling will fade (at least I hope so), but right now I feel so inadequate. And a little afraid. That I don't know what I'm doing and I'll pick terrible pictures. I sigh. I was talking to Brian about it a little today, so I feel a little better about the whole thing. I just remember when I was in staff, it felt like the editors were so confident and sure of their pics and what they were doing. Wow. I guess I must appear that way to those staffers... Oh, the irony!

Anyway. Here's the pics:

This one was my favorite of her images. I really liked the moment.

It really captured the emotions that ballet can portray and produce. Very nice.

One of the things that I really liked about the shoot was the background colors/pictures on the wall. They juxtapose really well with the dancers.

This picture is another one I really like and Taylor's favorite.

I really love how each of them are doing something different, like I can feel them mentally preparing for this practice.

The Missourian chose to run those pictures as well as this one. This is the one they ran large:

This one was very popular because of the shape that the dancers made.

Now, I mentioned that the designers ran these three images. Unfortunately, they did *this* to the long horizontal:

Doesn't that just look horrible? What were they thinking?

The other pictures included in the gallery:

Love this one because of how goofy it is. The man (incidentally, the one who choreographed the performance they were practicing) holding the baby. The woman, straining, as if to say, 'let go of my baby!'

This was a crowd pleaser because of the natural light from the skylights.

It Was a Good Day

2010-09-01T19:38:00.033-05:00

Photographer: Oded Balilty
Caption: A lone Jewish settler challenges Israeli security officers during clashes that erupted as authorities cleared the West Bank settlement of Amona, east of the Palestinian town of Ramallah. Thousands of troops in riot gear and on horseback clashed with hundreds of stone-throwing Jewish settlers holed up in this illegal West Bank outpost after Israel's Supreme Court cleared the way of demolition of nine homes at the site. (February 1, 2006)

The photo lab at school has undergone renovations over the summer and one of the things that changed are the pictures that were displayed. The new pictures are all from MU Photojournalism alumni. The old pictures, the ones that they decided to get rid of, are from the New Deal exhibit. To quote Davd Rees:
"Here's the history on that exhibit: created by the Smithsonian, it traveled the country for a few years in the 1980s & early 90s. When it was finished touring, it was given to the Museum of Art and Archeology here on campus. They stored it, but never showed it. When Lee Hills Hall opened in 1996 the museum offered the exhibit to us... So, we were glad to have those pictures, as many of the photographers had also been part of the original Farm Security Administration project - and the photo documentary approach that has so heavily influenced our program and American Photojournalism.

Since the School didn't want to dispose of them, they offered them to us students. So, I journeyed to the photo lab and sorted through the pictures and came home with 2 prizes. The first was a picture from the New Deal collection, of girls jumping rope. The second, why it just made my day, was this huge print (seen above) by Oded Balilty. I've often looked at this picture, hung in the photo lab, and yearned for it. I don't know exactly what it is about it, but I really love it. And I lucked out and scored the print!!! I haven't hung it yet - I need some help to make sure that it will be straight - but I'm very excited about this picture.

And when I went online to find the photographer and caption information, I discovered that Oded Balilty had won a Pulitzer for this picture! I knew it had won in POYi (Human Conflict -- First Place, 2007), but not a Pulitzer.

I now own a Pulitzer-prize winning print. It doesn't make me like the picture any more, but it's still pretty darn cool!

The ironic thing is, I almost didn't go. I wasn't feeling good, but decided at the last minute to go. Way to encourage me, God.

Project 365 - W21

2010-08-30T17:33:00.017-05:00

Week 21. Goodbye Maine, Hello Columbia.

A picture from my flight home to Missouri. I almost didn't make it out of Portland (overbooked flight), but was lucky to get rerouted through Atlanta. Most of the time when I've flown, there hasn't been such a nice clear blanket of clouds outside the window. I thought it made a nice picture.

So, I spent the night at my parents' house because I got into KC at 11 pm and drove back to Columbia on Tuesday. To abate my boredom, I used my iPhone to take pictures of things that struck my eye (as well as make weird pictures of myself). This is the bridge over the Missouri River - I really like how the beams make a design. Very cool. During the break, I was looking at my friends' pictures on FB and I realized that I need to be in more pictures. I want to show that I was involved in things and a part of things. Thus my taking weird pictures of myself (to be shared later).

Duds snoozes as I visit with Tracy. It's funny how easily the boys all settled back into our routine, when I'd been gone a week.

While walking to my car at the end of a day on campus, I came across this 'motorcycle parking' area in front of a restaurant downtown (Bengals Bar & Grill). I've never eaten there, but I liked the image, with the cycles all lined up in a row.

A picture of decorations for Kim's new shop. She's about to venture out on her own, with her own salon. Some of the girls went over to her shop on Friday and helped wipe it down/clean/dust it in preparation for when it opens.

Some of the singles from Kansas City came down to hang around Rocheport for the day. I drove out to Les Bourgeois's Blufftop Bistro to meet up with them for dinner, as did Shusila and Nick, Tracy Sines, Tracy my roommate, Chia-Wei, Shawn and Monique. This picture was taken with the help of Tracy S's camera flashlight. I love it because it looks like Shawn and Monique are in the middle of an intense discussion and Shawn is looking like 'why are you taking a picture of my girlfriend?!!' Yes, I know it's speckly and I wish I'd taken it with my camera instead of my phone, but I *still* don't have a charged battery for it.

A picture of newly-home Hayley. She and her twin, Lily, were born prematurely. They were in the hospital for a couple of months and this is the first time I have seen them since they came home.

It's Not Superman, It's STRONGMAN

2010-08-26T17:36:00.002-05:00

On July 24th, the Columbia Church of Christ held its first Strongman competition. Organized by Randall Heater, participants included children and adults, men and women.

It was on the hot side and it was sunny. But we had fun. I was lucky not to get a sunburn (I forgot my sunscreen).

Here's some of the fun:

It struck me as amusing that Reece was lugging these heavy things in flip flops. When I asked Daniel about it, he said that originally the kids events weren't supposed to entail walking with anything...

Zach is tired after lugging the bars. He leans on his dad, George.

Compared to everyone else, Tracy (who is around 6'10") looked like he was merely lugging a couple bags of luggage.

I love the expressions!

And that Jessie competed in a skirt:

A few details:

And few other great ones:

Heather Leidy, she was a monster - it seems she and her husband (Ted Collins) do this type of thing often. I loved watching her compete. She always had to do at least one more than any of the male teen competitors.

Debbie Newby gets her waist cinched by Ted Collins. That's what the face is for.

And my final pic again illustrates how *tall* Tracy Sines is.

This picture was taken as they prepared to adjust the bar for Tracy's height. Notice how it hits him in the waist? That was the height of someone's shoulders.

For the full album, go here.

Project 365 - W20

2010-08-23T17:05:00.001-05:00

Week 20. I'm in Falmouth/Portland, Maine, visiting my family. Fun times!

Some of the beautiful foliage that we have near my parents' house. The forests, etc., are one of the reasons that I love Maine. It's nice to be able to walk down the street and go on a hike. Columbia's like that, too, with lots of parks and trails, but Maine has pine and birch trees.

This is a picture of my brother, (step)dad, and cousin Mark's feet. Mark and my Aunt Collette were in town and we decided to go out to this "delicious" Italian restaurant, Paciarino, in downtown Portland. Mom made reservations for 7:30, which we were a few minutes early for. Did we sit at 7:30? No, we got to wait until 8:15 before we actually got a seat. Around 8, this one party, who we thought was who were waiting on, left, and this other table decided that they liked that table better, so they moved and another party took their old table. Where I was mildly annoyed before, now I got downright mad about how another party that came in after us got to sit down before we did. I had to go into the bathroom and pray because I was so ticked and I didn't want to be rude or ungiving to my family. I think my bad mood may have also been linked to the fact that I was very hungry, because when they brought the dipping bread, I started to feel better. In their defense, my mom thought they were down a server and every other time they'd been there the service was excellent. So maybe we came on an off night. Because my parents are my parents, they ended up overtipping (because gratuity was included and they tipped on top of that) and from what I calculated in my head, they didn't even bother to comp us a couple of meals for our inconvenience. I find *that* annoying.

I may have mentioned this before, but my brother is annoying in the he doesn't like getting his picture taken. Here, he decides to shoot me with a water bottle when I'm taking a picture of him and my cousin Mark. Aren't brothers great?

My dad peers up at the handwoven tapestry they have hanging in their great room. The tapestry is from Saudi (I believe) and is one of many hand-made rugs they have here and back in the compound in Jeddah. Both of them think she's absolutely beautiful. I am ambivalent.

On our way up to Freeport, we stopped at a nursery to pick up a few plants. My mother is an avid landscaper (with binders and binders of information and her own unique organizational system). This was one of the last pictures that I took with my camera before the battery died. I thought I had my other battery with me, but nope. No battery and no charger, so for the rest of the trip, my only camera was the one located on my iPhone. Arg!

My brother was in the process of renting a place in Orono (he attends the University of Maine) and so we traveled up there to check out an apartment. It's the second story of a nice old house that reminds me of my grandparents' place. If I was moving to Orono, I would move there. I like the feel of the place.

After checking out the apartment (which my brother did end up renting), we went for a hike in Dorothea Dix Park. We hiked out to the Penobscot River. Another beautiful hike. Great weather for it, too. And while hiking, we found this random bowling ball in the woods.

On Sunday, the Casco Bay Church of Christ (Portland's new church whose inaugural service is September 8th) had an outdoor service in Fort Williams Park. After church, my mom, my brother, and I explored the park, more specifically the area around the Portland Head Light, one of the most photographed lighthouses in all of Maine. This picture was taken on the shore of Casco Bay, with my brother poses in this off manner. The lighthouse is down to the right of this picture.

To the Lighthouse

2010-08-22T21:14:00.007-05:00

A book I did not enjoy the least, but my trip to Maine's most photographed lighthouse was quite enjoyable.

They are finally planting a church in Portland and today there was an outdoor service at Fort Williams Park. (Didn't realize this until I got to the USM campus and no one was there.) I forgot how small 30 people felt. But it was nice remembering what it was like 10+ years ago when we started the church in Columbia. I felt a little envious of them all... But not in an evil way, but in an excited about it way. So how can I transport that to when I get home?

Sunday morning, my brother offered to take me to church - which I thought meant he was planning on staying for service. Nope -- butthead. He just planned on dropping me off.

The message was really good - on being more than conquerors (Ro 8:28-39). One of the things that I realized today, and Glenn's message drove home, too, was how in that passage it talks about us being *more* than that. I've always read it as greater, more effective at conquering, but today, when we first read it, I thought, it's about more than those people we consider conquerors. Doing more, being greater, more admirable for the feats that we perform. And Glenn's message very much kept driving home how we can become greater than our weaknesses, but also greater than conquerors like Napolean and Alexander the Great. Pretty cool. Good times. (And it turns out that Glenn and Danielle know Vince and Robin! Small kingdom.)

Glen Petruzzi preaching. I *really* hate that my camera battery is dead. I could have taken a much better picture if I wasn't forced to use my iPhone.

I had a good time. My fellowship time with the fine folks above was cut short by Mom and Alex showing up, ready to explore the park. So I didn't get to meet as many people as I would have liked, but I was glad that we went together to explore the park. (Even if Alex didn't bring me comfortable shoes! I'm thankful that Mom had some spare shoes that I could wear.)

Here are some pics from the Portland Head Light.

At one point the path 'split.' And we ended up not really taking the path:

We got back on the trail and then followed another trail to go down to the water. Here's Alex helping my mom not fall down.

I love this next one, because it's a great picture of my mom! Which is so rare. I caught her before she really posed.

I also love this one. It appears to be Alex's favorite pose.

Greetings from Maine

2010-08-22T19:20:00.007-05:00

My step-dad is in the States and my parents were nice enough to pay for me to travel to Maine to visit.
The traveling there was crazy! I've flown Delta airlines several times before and was very satisfied with my experience, but after this, I am very reluctant to fly them again. I originally loved them because taking Riley with me would only cost me $100-150 for the trip. That's now $250 - ridiculous. That's half a plane ticket...

Anyway, I drive up the morning of, visit with my dad and step-mom for a few hours and then it's off the airport. I go to pull up my electronic ticket and there's a problem with my flight to Detroit (it was leg one of two of my flight to Portland, Maine). It seems that there are mechanical problems and it is stopped in Chicago. There's a nice long line to the counter and it's from all the people on the Detroit flight. When I finally reach the counter, it appears that, due to said mechanical failure with the plane, my flight has been canceled. The kicker is, according to the woman behind the desk, there is no flight that will get me to Portland, "because there's reduced flights on Saturday." I asked about other airlines and no luck, supposedly ("the first thing [she] checked"). So the earliest flight would be 6am the next morning. I was really psyched about that one because I *love* getting up in the morning.

My dad bugged the lady at the counter, so she ended up issuing some vouchers (like a $50 voucher for my next airline trip) and he decided to take the hotel voucher to the hotel to see if he can get $$$ for it. It was the wrong hotel, so no dice, but while we were waiting in the parking lot, I decided to check to make sure that there's no other flights that I can be booked on. According to Travelocity, there are several, including some that I could have made, if the woman behind the counter had issued me a ticket for them. So I call the airline's customer service number and ask why I didn't get rescheduled on a different airline, after waiting on hold 5-10 minutes. I was told that even though they show up, they're not available to them to schedule with. So I hang up, disgusted. My Dad was nice enough to call them back, feeling hot about how the airline was pulling a fast one, and his pushing got me a flight - 4 hours after my original flight was set to take off. How ridiculous is that?!!

These pictures were taken on the way back to the terminal.

This first one looked to me like a person petting what I think was a horse. While waiting for my iPhone to fire up, the clouds moved some, so the head separated some, but I thought it was really cool. Now it looks more like a rabbit than a person, but I liked it.

This second one, reminded me of a lion (now it kinda looks like a baboon).

I ended up flying out on Continental - a very pleasant experience. My first time and the planes were small! But I ended up meeting a very nice cardiologist on the flight to Detroit, Henry. Born in the U.S. (Kansas), of Nigerian descent, and now living in London. We talked the entire flight, which made the time pass quickly.

The second plane had propellers!

Craziness.

Portland welcomes its travelers.

Yay, Maine!At least 3 planes disembarked at the same time, so we got to wait for our luggage.

Man. It was a long day - but at least I got to Maine on Saturday, like I planned. I was plumb tuckered out when all was said and done.

Project 365 - W19

2010-08-16T18:05:00.000-05:00

Week 19. An eventful one.

The week started off slow. Here's a picture of Cullen chilling on my bed. Cullen is a dog that loves to cuddle. Any time, any where. And he loves to wag his tail, if he even thinks you might be interested in petting him.

A picture of Riley riding with his face out of the window of the car. He loves this activity, but not if the car is going more than 55 mph. I like that I captured his face in the rearview mirror. And I love how the wind will smoosh the fur on his face so that it sticks straight up.

Well, Laurence and Erica left this week to move to the Northeast. I don't add where exactly, because they're unsure of where they're going to end up, but they are first moving to Newark, Delaware. This picture is from their going-away party, which I, of course, cried at, because emotional things make me cry. Kathryn knitted this cap and scarf for Erica, to keep her warm during their winters ;) I'm going to miss both of them, but especially Erica. She was one of those people that it just felt great hanging with, even if we weren't doing anything. And she loved Bollywood movies.

I liked this cloud formation. I can't remember where I was going, but this is sitting in my car at the intersection of Providence and Business Loop.

So Friday, I was supposed to go up to my dad's, since I was leaving for Maine on Saturday. But that morning, he called me to tell me that there was drama going on with my niece and I should wait to come to KC on Saturday. So, Friday night, I went to the split devo, with the women meeting out at Kim's house. I brought Riley (and only Riley) because I wanted us to have a little together time before my trip to Maine. He has a habit of getting depressed when I'm gone too long. He was very good about not being a distraction. After the devo was over, I hung out and talked with Kim for a little bit. And as I was driving home I came across this car flipped over in the middle of the road. It's a gravel road, and could potentially cause something like this, because it can be quite windy. But this was on a straight part of the road. I got out of my car, calling out, asking if everyone was alright, and amazingly, the one woman in the car (the driver) walked away from the accident without a scratch. And right as I came across her car, it started to rain. I ended up calling 911 and talking to the fireman, because she didn't want to talk to him. And then I waited for the emergency vehicles to show up. I couldn't leave partially because her car was blocking the street. A few other cars showed up while we were waiting.

So, Saturday there was a lot of drama surrounding my flight to Maine. And finally, at 11 something in the evening, I was standing in baggage claim waiting for my bags, along with people from 3 other flights. Don't you love how this guy is sprawled out like he's in his living room and not around 75-100 other people.

So, Sunday morning, I had no ride, but I did go on a hike down to the Presumpscot River with my mom and (step)dad. This is a picture by the falls. Isn't Maine beautiful? :)

Well, It Seems Like I Forgot to Blog

2010-08-15T18:54:00.001-05:00

School is nearly upon me once again and I have realized that I have neglected my blog. It's been an interesting and odd summer. I haven't photographed as often as I would have liked, but I haven't felt as inspired to, either.

But each day is new, so I will make up for lost time. I plan on blogging about the weddings I worked, the Strongman competition I covered (and saw Josh at), and other exciting things.

I will leave you with this, a picture of my very 'brave' dog barking valiantly at a threat to our yard.

Project 365 - W18

2010-08-09T17:19:00.008-05:00

Week 18. The Week of the Duds.

I always find my puppies so cute when they are sleeping. I have these two big pillows (purchased at Target) which are great for leaning on. The one that I don't use, the boys like to climb up on and either sleep on or look out the window. This is Duds sleeping on the bed pillow which is on top of the big pillow.

Duds decided to shake his head while I was taking his picture. It was that kind of day. (And notice that the big pillow is now on *top* of the bed pillow. Apparently I changed my sheets because this is a different pillowcase from the picture before.

It seems like it is Duds week, because here is the third picture of the Duds. Here is the Duds asking me to scratch his belly. Duds likes to lick you to ask you to pet him. And he loves treats and human food. Even lettuce. Lettuce.

Sleeping puppies! This was really sweet. Cullen was sleeping and Riley rolled over on his back and was smooshed against him. Usually, it's Cullen who is leaning on Riley, but not today. Those two are really brothers.

For Friday's devo, we took a trip out on Tracy Sines' parents' boat. This is the sunset with Seth in the litlle inflatable boat. Which went under water really easily. It was a fun time, but the getting there was not. The boat ride was originally scheduled a few weeks ago, but there was rain. So when they rescheduled it, they changed the time, which I didn't remember. So Tracy called me to ask me if I was planning on going, as everyone had either left or were leaving then, leaving me no time to get to where we were meeting up. I had been feeling like crap lately (nausea, fatigue, lots of headaches) so I was not happy that I was going to end driving down to Jeff City for the trip. In the end, I did drive. I got the address and put it my phone's GPS (I had called Jim for directions, which were intricate and confusing, so I got the address instead). So I'm tooling along and for some reason, the remoteness of where I was going, screws up the GPS and leads me to be out in the middle of nowhere. So, now I'm more frustrated, and almost drive home, particularly because I try calling people and no one answers. I resort to Mapquest using my iPhone's internet and am able to find where I'm going. (I was only about 5-10 minutes from there.) So I get there, feeling ticked, because I feel like crap and with the knowledge (because of talking to Seth and Steven) that if they'd just waited for me in the first place, they would have gotten out on the water at the same time, I just would have been with them. Seth and Tracy had brought the boat out to the water about 1:30 later than what they had planned. So they could have waited for me. I prayed to be giving because I was pissed. Hungry, ailing, and irritable. It's funny how hunger and feeling like crap affect my mood. Tracy was nice enough to come over and welcome me on board his boat and chat for a few minutes so that I could lighten up.

So the boat ride itself was fun. Someone brought watermelon, my favorite fruit, so I was able to get something in my stomach. It was a juicy melon! Very delicious. Seth and Steven went out on the little boat to do some 'skiing' but the boat didn't work very well. They kept sinking. One of the most memorable events of the evening was when we were driving back to the dock. Earlier in the evening, the boat had gotten back heavy (where the engine was), so Seth mentions, "people should move to the back of the boat." I move to the back of the boat. I'm standing there and all of a sudden, there is some shouting. The front was starting to sink in the water because of the weight of the people and the push of the engine. People run for the back of the boat. A big slosh of water comes with them. Steven lost one of his flipflops and the homemade ladder for the boat got swept out to sea.

Duds sleeping on the pillow - I told you it was Duds week.

After several months, Chris and Camilia finally came to visit. I snapped this picture after church. She and Erica look so cute.

After church, we went to eat at the new(er) Mexican restaurant downtown and then went to check out the new movie, Salt, starring Angelina Jolie. I really liked it, even if I did firgure out the twist. Well, suspected the twist. I was gratified to have my suspicions - about it and about Evelyn Salt's allegiances - be confirmed. I think I figure these things out because I have a writer's mind and notice the little clues.

One thing that was funny was: Riley was in the movie. Or at least a dog that looked like him, mostly. After much internet trolling, I was able to discover that Salt's dog was a Norwich Terrier named Stamp. Now, you might think that I'm partial or biased because I love my dog, but the dog *really* looked like Riley in its initial scene. Evelyn Salt returns home and there, in a basket in the corner, is Riley. I say to myself, "Why is Riley in this movie?" Not two seconds after I think it, Camilia leans over to me and says, "Why is Riley in this movie?" And after the movie was over, her husband, Chris, asks, "Why was Riley in that movie?"

Later scenes proved that the dog was *not* a Silky Terrier - wrong type of fur (wiry vs. silky). But still. I almost thought that one of those times where Riley has escaped the yard, he ran off to Hollywood and starred in a movie with Angelina Jolie. And I thought he never paid attention to the television.

Project 365 - W17

2010-08-02T17:07:00.004-05:00

Week 17. Started out the week house and dog sitting for my parents.

Riley is so sweet. He's perched on my parents' sofa. I am in Kansas City dog/house-sitting for my parents. They took my nieces, Erin and Allison, to Branson for a couple of days.

A picture of Cullen doing what comes naturally to him - wagging his tail. If he thinks there's any possibility of you petting him, that tail will wag. Such a goober. But one that somehow will end up in your lap without you realizing it.

My parents got home yesterday. I stuck around so that I could spend a little time with them before heading back to Columbia. My (step)mom was a little frustrated with my niece because she was being obnoxious during their trip. We were hanging out on the bed with the dogs when my dad came in and joined us. This picture was of Cullen asking my dad to pet him by tapping him with his paw.

I snapped this picture of Robin's mom, aiming my phone over my shoulder. She was in town, visiting and helping Robin and Vince prepare for the homecoming of their twins, Hayley and Lily. The twins were born premature and have been in the hospital for a couple of months.

Riley sleeping with his face covered. He doesn't do it very much anymore, which I think is a sign that he feel secure and taken care of. When I first brought him home, he slept with his face covered almost all the time.

My boys, sitting on my couch. I'm glad that they get along so well. I decided to snap this picture because I don't normally have a picture of them together. As you might be able to tell, this was not posed.

One of the meals that I typically order from The Olive Garden, their "Create a Sampler." I love the stuffed mushrooms, calimari, and toasted ravioli. After I ate this (notice the leftovers) I was stuffed. I hate that feeling of being stuffed. Full is one thing; stuffed is another. I went there after church with Shawn (and his kids), Monique (and her kids), and Chia-Wei.

Project 365 - W16

2010-07-26T17:03:00.064-05:00

Week 16. I guess you could say that I really love my dogs, by the way I take lots of pictures of them.

A picture of my Boo-Boo. Those big pools of brown that stare up at you... I am, however, immune to the puppy-dog eyes. Well, almost immune. Sometimes I give in - more to the whining than the eyeballs. And he knows how to use them, too! If he's trying to get my attention, first he whines. If I ignore him, he will climb onto the bed to sit a couple inches from my face, staring intently into my eyes as if to say, 'pay attention, this is important!' And we've gotten to the point where if I ask him, "What? Show me," he will walk and stand in front of what he wants to tell me (like the door to outside, the treat canister, his dinner bowl).

Cullen stretches on the bed. I love it when dogs stretch. It looks like it feels so good. Especially when they spread out their toes.

Duds waits for me to pet him. He asks for pets by licking you. Riley nuzzles you with his nose, Cullen swipes at you with his paw. And Dudley licks. And makes little whining/grunting noises.

It's a baby shower for the Hawkins twins. I thought these baskets were very clever.

Snuggling puppies. I don't know why I like to take this picture, but something about Riley letting Cullen snuggle him, it makes me happy. Riley had such a disfunctional relationships with dogs when I first got him. Seeing him have a healthy happy close relationship with another dog, makes me happy.

A scene from CCC's first Strongman competition. Debbie Newby is getting help putting on the weight-lifting belt lifters use in these types of events. It was fun covering the event for the church and Randall was so excited to host/put the event together.

I really liked this set of clouds in the sky. It makes me think of God sitting up there. I blame it on all those Renaissance paintings...