Random thoughts

So Shelby has been here since Saturday, and we've been having a good time. I've been to the fucking movies like 5 times though, and going again tonight. My poor wallet. =(

We saw The Orphanage with Shawn and his girlfriend a few days ago, and it made me think of a few things.

I am never, ever, ever going to see a horror movie in a theater ever again. I liked this movie. Thought it was well made. The people though. Holy shit. People talking "Oh nooooo", girls screaming, boyfriends laughing at those screams and jumps. Never again.

The other thing that got me thinking. If we didn't know it was a horror movie, how would our reactions be different? As the music started building up, and you wait for the inevitable jump out and blast of music, you start to tense. But you tense up because you know it's a horror movie. Because you know that these things are supposed to happen. Shawn's girlfriend would put her hands over her ears to muffle the loud noise that we all knew was coming when something would jump out. Without a predefined notion of this being a horror movie, would she still have done that? Would our reactions be vastly different?

I bet somewhere out there someone has done a study on this, or on the psychological and physiological effects of horror movies. Well I hope someone out there has done one because I don't have the money to fund one myself. Maybe I'll test it out by finding another horror movie that is named so inconspicuously, and show the trailer to one person, and not the other. And see how the reactions go. It's so hard to keep someone on blackout about a movie though.


Oh, and I also haven't posted pictures because I've been pretty busy, but rest assured I will as soon as I get time. I have been taking them.

Contacts suck

I finally went to Lenscrafters about a week ago. And the optemtrist decided that since I normally sleep in my contacts, she would give me healthier ones to do so in. Well when I tried them on, I couldn't see shit out of my left eye, and my right eye was perfect. A day later, and the exact opposite. Now I cna't see shit out of my right eye past like 3 feet. If even that far.

Last night this culminated in a terrible headache. I really hope my prescription isn't fucked because those glasses that are coming are expensive.

Anyway I just felt like bitching I suppose.

Really liked this one

Stickered sign
Originally uploaded by PowerLlama

So I'm posting it. Took it yesterday, but I was so tired last night I didn't post it to the blog. I really like the colors and the contrast between the super bright sign and the dark buildings.

Project 365

Vulcan represent
Originally uploaded by PowerLlama

So here it goes. This is the 1st picture I'm posting for the new year, and I think a good one to kick off this project. I took another one today with my SD1000, but I of course can't upload it until I get home.

I wanted to go to the beach but I actually have work to do, so I didn't get to go. It's a beautiful day outside too. Oh well. I really like the one I took today, and I'll probably post it here too. And maybe even use it as a background on my desktop. Hmmm.

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Stuff to type about

So I killed my iPod. 100% completely dead. The cable I was using in my car fell apart, and I think some wires got crossed and now my iPod doesn't work. Which makes me =(

I think I'm getting a new camera for Christmas, and with that I want to start a new project. It's called Project365, and I read about it over on Lifehacker.com. Basically it's to improve at photography by taking a picture every single day. And not the same thing every day, like those time lapse videos that are so popular, but something unique every day. I'll be using this space in conjuction with my Flickr account to keep myself on track. So starting January 1st, if I don't post a new picture every day, yell at me!

Other stuff has happened, but I really don't want to talk about it on here. It's pretty sad. But other than that I have nothing to talk about I suppose. Just help keep me on track for my new year project.

Forgot

Last night I thought about all this stuff I was going to write about today... but I forgot all most of it. Blarg. I'll try to make stuff up off the top of my head then.

I got a new photography book last night, since well, that's what I've been obsessing over lately. A couple of people recommended it to me, it's called Understanding Exposure and then it has a colon and more words. The guy explains things, and then shows you in pictures what he means, which is pretty cool. Like he'll say "this picture was taken with this and this, and this picture in the same spot was taken with this this and this and this is why this looks better than that." Except with less run on sentences normally. I'm enjoying it, and learning a ton, even if I don't (hopefully yet) have a fancy camera. I was reading it at lunch today, and it inspired me to bust out the camera and take a bunch of macro shots, which I'll post to the ol' Flickr account later.

I'm buying a new laptop bag later today so that I can bring my laptop with me to home and not worry about me dropping my bag and destroying it. I checked out two highly recommended bag companies, and liked one way more than the other. There was Crumpler and Timbuk2, and I thought the crumpler bag blew the timbuk2 bag out of the water on most fronts. Except for the laptop holding space. In the timbuk2 bag it's lined with cordoroy, and in the crumpler I think it's just padded. Also swaying me towards the crumpler is that it's on clearance at the place I went. I just really don't like the color, but the color I do like doesn't seem to be for sale on the usa website.

Anyway I've got nothing left to write about I suppose.

It's been a few weeks

The last time I published was on November 27. Man that was a while ago. Sorry about that.

I'm learning to absolutely hate Mondays. Mainly because the weekends screw with my sleep schedule so much. So both last week and this week, I got around 2 hours of sleep before work. Insomnia is always fun. Instead of sleeping I decided to try and fix my computer which was acting up, and watch the majority of Silence of the Lambs. What a good movie.

Speaking of movies, I saw Juno this weekend too, which was fantastic. It's only playing on 7 screens, but did really really well. Apparently it's in the top 7 films for gross as compared to screen number. Lots of 7's there.

My picture taking has slown down a bit, as I've run out of stuff at work to actually take pictures of. It's just too dark in here. I can't pump up the ISO because I get way too much noise, and I hate taking pictures with the flash on. It makes pictures look like crap in dark areas, and bugs my coworkers.

I go home in a few weeks for a few days, and I'm looking forward to it. I won't be there so long as to start hating Midland, but I think long enough to see everyone I want to see, and do everything I could possibly want to do. Which boils down to eating Rosa's, Chick-fil-a, Sonic, and Taco Villa.

Work was incredibly stressful last week, but I won't go into it right now. It's blown past already so it's not that big of a deal. They have told me they're probably going to move me to junior compositing tasks soon, which I'm very excited for.

And that's a lot to read so I'm done typing.

I think I get it

I started the Flickr account, just because I really didn't understand some of the concepts of Web 2.0. I just really didn't understand why I should care or why anyone else should care. But now I think I kind of understand it.

I check my flickr account every day now, hoping I get more views on my pics. And then getting excited about what's getting views. It makes no sense. I have no idea who's looking at these pictures, or why, but I am giddy that someone is. Hell, two of my pictures are having a race as to who has the most views. It's almost like a competition in which no one else is playing (right now, since I'm not currently following anyone else.)

So I guess that's how I "get it."

My desk at work

My desk
Originally uploaded by PowerLlama

This is where I work every day. I made a little panoramic version.

fun with a camera.

Sometimes it's hard to see.
Originally uploaded by PowerLlama

I like this picture.

New camera!

IMG_0016.JPG
Originally uploaded by PowerLlama

So I got my new camera tonight, and I've played with it for the past few hours.

The thing is fucking TEENY. All the reviews said it was small, but jesus, this is smaller than I expected. It's like smaller than a deck of cards.

So far, it seems to take some pretty nice photos. I'll have to take more in the sunlight, because the lighting in here is crap though.

Initial verdict is: I like!

Pictures

Geotagging is one of the coolest and creepiest features to come out of the digital age in regards to photography. You put in the data where it was you took the picture (latitude and longitude) and when you upload it to a site like Flickr, you can see it on a map. Which is really cool when you want to see pictures of home and you just zoom into Midland on the map and see some great photos. But it's really creepy when you see some kid's birthday. You can restrict who sees that information for a reason you know.

I just bought a new camera, and I think I'm going to start taking more pictures, and trying to just get more into photography in general. It's something I've always liked, but never really got that into. But my new camera is pretty small, and fits into my pocket so I should be able to take it anywhere and just snap pictures when I feel the need.

I put a thing to my flickr pool over on the right there, but all it has so far are pictures from bars taken by my crappy camera phone. It almost makes me miss my old phone. My K790a took absolutely great pictures and had a flash. Take that iPhone. Oh well.

So yeah. Hopefully expect more photo stuff from me.

I think I'm balding

Someone please tell me I'm wrong.

My desk!

This is what's on my desk right now. Man I'm bored, waiting on stuff.

New job!

Well as many of you know, I just started working at Digital Domain.

It's only my second day though, and I haven't done much. In fact I'm updating while at work waiting for my first meeting.

Alright gonna go. Bye.

Brutal Halloween!

Just got done dressing up for halloween. Here's how it went down:

Before:


With a 'stache, I look JUST like my dad:


Completely clean shaven:


Straightened hair = NATHAN EXPLOSION


I pulled my pants up to old man height after the picture, and it looks better.

I am a retard

I just learned the lesson of why you should always proofread everything. Apparently for the past few weeks, I've been sending out a resume with false information on it. And wondering why I wasn't getting any callbacks.

It says I worked at Zoic from March until April 2007. Wow a whole month's worth of experience.

I'm a genius sometimes.

Bored

Just bored on the plane.

It's raining!

It never rains here! And it's raining so hard our porch is flooding!