Twilight, Part One

EDITED: This was originally written on Sunday night, but I posted it to the picture blog on accident. So here it is now. Pretend it's Sunday night, kay?

So I started reading Twilight. You know, the Mormon vampire book. Wasn't really sure what to expect out of it. I mean, really: what does one expect from a teenage vampire book, written by a Mormon, and gushed about by a good majority of both the Mormoms and Christians that I know/keep up with via blogs?

Exactly.

So I'm 101 pages in as of now, and I must say, it's definitely entertaining. Intriguing. Suspenseful. I think I've already got part of the plot figured out, but there's still like 400 pages to go, so I'm thinking it may be a part that you're supposed to figure out early so you think you're all smart and then WHAM! The real suprise hits you around page 350, because you weren't even looking for it. If you want to read Twilight and don't want any spoilers, don't read the next paragraph-- I'll make it easy to avoid by typing in small letters and a really light font. But here's my guesses so far:

Bella's mother is one of the vampires. That's why she seems so young for her age, Bella claims she is prettier than her (because the vampires in this book are characterized by their ageless beauty), and why she had problems staying with Bella's dad. This would make Bella a half-vampire, which explains why what's-his-face Cedric Digory-boy (Edward) is so drawn to her, why she's harder for him to see through, something about her weakness for blood, and would somehow make it so they could be a cute little vampire couple for eternity.

Or something. I really don't know. But it's good. Definitely going to be looking forward to all the down time on set tomorrow.

Dinner a'la Thursday

Brittany and Andy prep the chef's salad (a house favorite of Thursday night dinner if you will remember from here.)

A view of the nearly empty apartment on the eve of the eve of Ryan's last night.

Group shot #8? It took a little bit of time, and quite a few books stacked, to get all of our entire heads in the picture.

And this one... this one will have to be explained later.

Five on Friday

Because Ten on Tuesday is just too much.

1) Once Jenna and I locked ourselves out of the apartment and didn't realize for half an hour that we had the key in our hands the whole time. And I mean literally in our hands, not some metaphorical mumbo jumbo. Funny story, really. Maybe I'll tell it another time.

2) On Tuesday night, Jenna and I got ourselves locked in our apartment for the first time ever. Our screen door gets stuck all the time, and that day it decided not to unstick, despite the 100+ pounds of girl we were throwing at it. We finally had to have Jared come over and bust us out. And then we taped over that stupid hole so it couldn't happen again.

3) A claim to fame: For quite a while, I was the top ranked player on the Addicted to Veronica Mars trivia application on Facebook. Of the entire world of people who are addicted to Veronica Mars, I had a commanding lead for about two weeks. Then I remembered I have a life to live and stopped keeping up with it, but someday I'm going to go back and reclaim my title. Our team, which consisted of Brittany, Ryan, and Andy, was the top ranked team for quite awhile as well.

4) I am writing a book. No, you're not in it.

5) I kind of loathe Rock Band a little. I feel it's the popular kid's Guitar Hero. Or for kids who can't share. Either way, the guitar is different feeling and I don't like it.

Melancholy and Rock Stars.

Well, tonight we are at Ryan's for the last time. He's moving out of his bacheror pad, this nice little apartment with a jacuzzi, nestled into a nook of the 15 freeway.

We will miss it.

Currently, 3 Shades of Blue are playing Rock Band. 3 Shades of Blue is our band name cuz we're cool like that. It's 3 Shades, even though there are 4 of us, because 3's a cooler number apparently. And also, I only play like a third of the time so it really doesn't matter. (I don't find Rock Band very impressive.)

So they're playing, and I'm blogging, and Thursday nights are routine for one last night. After this we're sure to watch some television show Ryan's DVR'ed, so the last TV Thursday will be a very well-rounded experience.

You Know You Want to Work Here

We have some fun little traditions at work:

We have our Day at the Fair.

We have our Pajama Day.

And now we have a new tradition: Christmas in July.

I know, I know. From my last post I know you all were thinking, "InDesign? And the Beatles? For work? And crazy amazing dark chocolate peanut M&Ms?!" And I know you were all feeling really jealous that I get to go to work everyday and have this amazing time, with my stellar Adobe products, sixties rock stars, and sugar high galore. And here I go and make you even more covetous with our newest tradition: Christmas. In July.

I'm so sorry.

We're just awesome like that.

Merry Christmas!

(You'll see. Just had to get it in there before it turns tomorrow.)

EDIT: Dang it, two minutes too late.

Once Upon a Tuesday

Currently loving:

Very Vanilla yogurt
The Beatles One CD
Adobe InDesign CS3 How-Tos
Dark chocolate peanut M&Ms

Yes. Life is indeed good.

Studying Up

Still here. Still playing with the cam. I'm slowly reading through the manual that came in the box. Yeah. I'm totally one of those people. But now I'm one of those people who knows how to make my own custom white balance with a gray card (always wondered how they did that), choose a setting that sharpens or softens the picture in-camera (cool, cool), and shoot in RAW to get the uber-best picture possible. Here are three I particularly like from my prowlings-around tonight:

(Note: The following pictures were all shot with an ISO of 1600. Sixteen freakin' hundred, people. And the only time you can really see any pesky grain is when they're blown up. A-mazing.)

Exhibit A: A study in manual focusing

Exhibit B: A study in the kitchen

Exhibit C: A study of night-time manual photos, as well as burning edges

Some Favorites

In case anyone's interested in what lens I have:

Flowers are pretty, yes?

New toy! New toy!


RAW images are my new best friends:

She might kill me for posting this one, but hey, she never checks my blog anyway, right?

My cute little sis:

See? I'm not above posting obnoxious pictures of myself, too:

And one from last night's High School Musical party:

Okay, the High School Musical party.

When we visited camp for the Indian Idol talent show on Wednesday, Sonia decided we should all get together over the weekend to watch HSM, which is her and Liz' obsession. Big time obsession. But she said we had to watch it at Jig's house, because apparently Jig's roommate, Emo, has an even bigger obsession. And does he ever. He's got both the movies, a HSM lunch box that sings, an East High penant on the wall, and a Mickey mouse in a red and white basketball jersey. But probably the scariest piece of paraphanalia is the half-sized-to-real-life sticker of Vanessa Hudgens on the wall outside the kitchen.

Emo says she flirts with him every morning as he eats his cereal.

It's really quite disturbing.

So, I'd seen the first one, and liked it all right. Good music. Good morals. Ashley Tisdale's awesome, and two of the kids were on Veronica Mars. It's a nice combo.

High School Musical TWO? Is so ridiculously absurd I can't even talk about it. Okay, maybe just a little. Here were some of my personal favorite most unbelievable moments:

1) The over-use of the phrase "we're all in this together."

2) Vanessa Hudgens giggling like a five-year-old valley girl.

3) Lanterns that suddenly turn into helium balloons.

4) Obnoxious lighting changes that go from perfecly lit outside scenes to ridiculously obvious backdrops with purple lighting, and then back again... in the same scene.

5) Zac Efron walking into the club with what could only have been an acting direction to "look as if you've never seen a pool area before."

6) The ridiculous boy band-ish start of "Bet on it."

7) The ridiculous sand throwing moment of "Bet on it."

8) The ridiculous reflection in the lake during "Bet on it."

9) Zac Efron's pirouhette during "Bet on it."

10) Dives into the shallow end of the pool... by the lifeguard on duty.

The only redeeming factor of the entire movie? Ryan and his incredible facial expressions.

Also good?

"Repeat?!" Which I will be using in the future.

It's Here!

My brand new beautiful little camera came yesterday at 2:37pm. I think I may have scared the FedEx guy when I threw the door open and told him, "I've been waiting all day for you!"

And, without further adieu: the first pic off the my new cam.

Still Not Here.

And everytime anything that even remotely sounds like a big truck passes by I turn to stare hopefully out the window. It's really quite pathetic.

Ancient Burial Grounds and Such

I picked up Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird again because I needed something quick for my sure-to-be quiet Youth Venture shift a few weeks ago. The El Cajon library is literally between the office and the center, so it's easy to stop in, grab some kid's movies, some books, and prepare myself for a long two hours.

I decided to actually start reading it again as I sat in the fifteen car pileup of the McDonald's drive-thru this afternoon. I'd forgotten how entertaining that thing is. (Bird by Bird, not the MickeyD's drive-thru.)

There's just something inspiring about her attempts to disillusion aspring writers to the facade of published fame and glory.

Today she writes:

"Start with your childhood.... Plug your nose and jump in, and write down all your memories as truthfully as you can. Flannery O'Connor said that anyone who survived childhood has enough material to write for the rest of his or her life."

So, without further ado, the first childhood tale that popped into my head:

Edited: Originally I wrote about this one time in fourth grade when we pretended the playground of our elementary school had been built over a graveyard. But it was a stupid story. And long. And I really hate long stupid stories. Remember one of the most important lessons we learned at camp: faster is funnier.

I also have a story about the annual spelling bee; maybe that one will prove to be more entertaining later.

Update:

The cam is not yet here.

It is still on the same FedEx truck as 4:52 this morning.

When I checked the tracking around 4:30pm, it said they hadn't bothered dropping it off because they were too lazy and perhaps they would find the time to do so tomorrow (paraphrased).

Just you wait, FedEx man. Just you wait.

On a FedEx truck in San Diego:

Is where the cam currently is!

North Salt Lake, Utah:

Is where the cam currently is!

Vanns.com: Check It Out

Yippee!

So far my experience blowing hundreds of dollars on technology has been enjoyable. My Montana supplier has proven be be faithful on many accounts:

1) When I had a question about the mysterious disappearance of Awesome Bundle Options (!), I was told on Saturday night that I would get an answer on Monday (cuz it looks like that store's a Christian, and is closed on Sundays); but I got a reply back Sunday morning (before church, I'm sure) from a very informative representative (who unfortunately confirmed that the bundle deal was indeed over, but hey, she was nice about it).

2) Then when I decided to go for the camera anyway(sometime around 11pm last night), and clicked to order the NOT bundled camera bag along with it, I got a pop-up that I could purchase this for around 40% off if I wanted to browse the go-backs section of returned bags that had all been given a perfectly-good-condition stamp of approval. Can you say heck yeah? (I thought so.) What a brilliant idea.

3) THEN, when I've placed my order, gotten my confirmation, been told that my order will go out on Wednesday, probably arrive around the 22nd (next Tuesday, still not a bad turn around for FREE shipping), and settled myself into a long nine days of researching every detail of SLR shooting that I can (I finished color balance and sharpness lessons on the Canon website over lunch today), I get this little e-mail at 3pm:


JORDAN PECK,
Your Vanns.com order processing has been completed. The purpose of this email is to confirm that order 51461216014024965468 has been sent to our shipping department. If you have received this email before 12 PM MST on a regular business day, your order will be shipped out on the same day.


Me: Why thank you, Vanns.com. I suppose I should be on the lookout for my camera full of awesomeness sometime next Tuesday then?

Vanns.com: No, it should be arriving this Thursday according to our FedEx buddies, who have already stopped by to pick up your camera of awesomeness; it's probably somewhere in Wyoming by now. Didn't we tell you we're all awesome like that?

SO! Thursday's the big day! (On an unrelated note, it's also the day Jenna and I have chosen for a mini-spring cleaning day of sorts. But don't tell Jenna I referenced spring cleaning for it; she thinks this is just a regularly scheduled cleaning moment.)

I did it... part two.

I love a good midnight snack. :)

Still researching. I think I figured out the flash problem: seems the flash automatically fires for certain automatic settings (ones I probably don't often use and therefore didn't notice that I have no flash options for), but all manual settings won't activate it. Neither will automatic sports setting. Excellent.

Bad news! I went back to the company website I've been lurking on the by the XT and the bundle options are now gone! Are they reading my blog?

Decisions, decisions (and lots of research)

I've been non-stop researching the Canon Rebel this last week. After hearing nothing but sung praises for it from my professional photographer roommate, Mandy, pro camp photographer Boy Jordan, and hundreds of people in message boards worldwide, I figured out that it's kind of a kick butt camera. (Well, I already knew that, but I got it confirmed enough to satisfy knowing that it won't be a waste of money.) Finally decided I needed to have one in my hands to really play with to see if it looked like something I could catch on to.

I decided to hit up Liz for her XTI at the Wild West Show; her battery was dead.

She directed me to Boy Jordan, who gave me a whirlwind summary of all five versions of the Rebel, including his personal preference, what was so great about the XS, and how he ordered one online, they took his money, then found out they were out of stock (!), and how he still wasn't over the whole ordeal, all in the time it took to get from the WWS stage to Oak Rock. Then he handed me the camera and I proceeded to not know what to do with it in the dark, as hundreds of campers filed past, old camp staff stopped to say hey, and new camp staff who had been campers when I worked there, paused to exclaim over the fact. (That's always fun- working at camp turns everyone into a celebrity of sorts.) So short story: Didn't get a darn thing from the experience (except, of course, for Boy Jordan's vast wealth of knowledge on the subject.)

Brings us to yesterday (Friday). I found this great dealonline (the XT, a fairly good lens, extra battery, 1 gb CF card, and a pretty nice camera bag to boot, all for $469, free shipping, and no tax since it's out of state), and I've been just itching to take the leap. Fortunately my sensibility kicks into high gear when monetary amounts over $200 are involved, and I told myself I was not allowed to seal the deal until I had actually spent time with an XT and found everything online about the XT that could answer anything I'm unsure about.

So today Ryan and I headed over to Best Buy to play with the cameras. It was fun. And I'm definitely loving the Rebel, and definitely hating the lighting in Best Buy. I was able to figure out how to change all my main settings (ISO, aperture, AF-- shutter speed took awhile to figure out), except for how to turn off the bloody flash. It kept popping up for every picture, unless I set it to a specific no-flash mode on the dial, but then I got no other manual options so that just won't work. Seeing as my little point and shoot has auto flash, manual flash, and no flash settings, I'm thinking there's probably an easy way to fix this, and five minutes from now I will be poring over the XT manual online to find that answer.

So all that to say, I will most likely be making my purchase tomorrow night. And maybe, just maybe, I'll even have my brand new little Rebel by this time next week. Woo-hoo!

I'm going to need to come up with a name for that little guy now....


(Also, the 'I did it' in the previous reference refers to my hair. As in, 'I did cut it.')

Bring in the Clowns

She's kind of cute like that, huh?

And one from my clown days, back in 2001. Same pigtails and everything. I guess it's a sister thing.

I did it....

I am so in love

... with photoshop!

Look what I can do!

To Splurge, or to Splurge More?

Along with my moral dilemna of chopping my hair or not (today I'm on the 'totally-doing-it' side, but who knows what will happen next time I brush my hair-- less than 24 hours to decide!), my latest problem is figuring out what kind of camera to upgrade to. I love my little Canon A75 to death. It is my most treasured gift, perfectly wrapped and presented to me Christmas 2004 by the most amazing friends I'll ever have.

Sadly, at 3.2 megapixels, it's a little behind in times now. I will always, always keep it on hand as my back-up (and probably even go-to early on for quick shots I need to know how to do fast), but the time has come, the walrus said, to talk of other things. Namely, do I go for the latest and greatest A series Canon, the A590, which is basically the 2008 upgrade of my little A75, or should I forsee my photography passion growing in the next year and splurge right on up to the Rebel XT (oh, the Rebel...)?

Seeing as there is a price difference of $300 between the two, this is no easy decision. What I need is to get my hands on someone's Rebel to play with for awhile, and then figure it out.

Pro/Con list to follow.

To Cut? Or not to cut?

Yes, that is the question.

And before you all think I'm going emo on you, I'm referring to the ridiculousness I call my hair. I know that if I go ahead and cut it, I'll never have it long again. Part of me just wants to keep holding out for just that reason. Then the other part of me that can't do anything with my own hair is screaming at me to chop it off so I don't have to worry about it. That part was darn well winning for awhile. Then two other parts, we'll call them Jen and Justin, convinced me last Thursday to keep it long. I was convinced... until today. And now we're back to the beginning.

What I really want is to cut it about midway down my back. That way it's not a shock to just have it all gone, and if I want to go shorter I'm already half there. But I feel like it would be such a waste to have grown my hair this long and then not donate it. I blame this conflict on my mom for raising me not to waste anything.

So I have until Thursday to decide. I guess right now I'm leaning toward keeping it long and layering, thus giving me more time to get used to the idea of chopping it all off next time. Or, I'm going to end up being selfish and cutting around 4 inches off to get what I want. Sheez.

I Went to the American Idol Concert and All I Got Was This Lime Green T-Shirt

Kidding! I also got some pretty great pictures, if I do say so myself. Also, if any of you were wondering, sneaking a camera into the Sports Arena? Cake. Walk.

:: Panaramic view 10 minutes before the concert started::

:: Top 5-10 perform a song mid-concert::

:: Half-time picture::

:: A lovely guy offered to take this picture for us::

::Representing $105 worth of merchandise::

::Jason Castro, with his weird red shoes::

:: Little David and the piano came up out of the floor-- that was pretty sick::

::Awww, I like this little guy::

::But I think I like this guy more::

:: Working the crowd::

::All of their humility really impresses me, but I think what especially got me was when Big David brought out this little video camera he'd just bought so he could capture the audience's reaction. I really like that he acts like a normal guy who just happened to be thrust into stardom, and shows it by nerding out on the crowd like that::

:: The last song ::

And for more pics, here's the flickr link: http://flickr.com/photos/18312815@N00/tags/theonewiththeamericanidols/

Also, now that I have them pu, here are the links for the rest of the fair pictures, NOT-couch-burning-beach-bonfire night, and Mikey's birthday:

http://flickr.com/photos/18312815@N00/tags/theonewiththefair/

http://flickr.com/photos/18312815@N00/tags/theonewiththenotbonfire/

http://flickr.com/photos/18312815@N00/tags/theonewheremikeyturns24/

Sea World, anyone?

Well, I'm over at Ryan's house now, and was about to set into updating the ol' blog (much to talk about, AI concert, Fourth of July, etc.), but looks like we're going to do an impromptu trip to Sea World instead. At 9:15pm.

I love San Diego. :)

Another Quote From Yesterday...

"When she grows up, she wants to be just like me."

~Justin Aubrey, July 2008, in reference to his dad's comment on how easily and amusingly we fight with each other.

Only Support Staff Will Laugh At This Joke...

"Screw you, fate. I do what I want!" ~ Brian Reames, July 2008

Aw, I get to see David Cook tonight

American Idol concert tonight, peeps. I'm a bit excited, I have to admit, even though I'm not much of a concert fan as a general rule. I think it's from following the trials and joys of the final seven in their last weeks of the show, the only episodes of American Idol I've ever watched. I love how humble they all are, not these big ego-centric rock stars. And since tonight's only the second show of the tour, we'll hopefully get them before they get too tainted by the glitz and glamor.

Pictures to come! (Fingers crossed!)

On an unrelated note, anyone have a suggestion for smuggling a camera into the sports arena? Are we going to be Disneyland searched (just a quick look through the bag and a walk through the detector) or is it not smart for me to just pocket the camera?

Goodbye, Jeremy!

We will miss you!
Have an excellent time in Benin/Be-i!
Tell us how to pronounce where you are so we don't sound like idiots when we tell others!
Sorry we didn't go to Ikea for delish hot dogs!