GET OUT OF THAT BOX!

I took pictures of my friend in the library the other day that remind me of this video.

I feel good that I took them before I saw this.

Yeah!

Salvador Dali Movie Could Mean Death Sentence For Young Man's Career

Should Rob Pattinson Worry About Bad Reviews?

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R.Pattz's acting was awful in Twilight, so I really wonder about Little Ashes. Have you read any reviews? Is it any good at all? Thanks.

—ilariacapasso, via Twitter

Critics remain way underwhelmed by Robert Pattinson's channeling of artist Salvador Dalí in Little Ashes. Call it a lack of—tee hee—sparkle. A few were impressed—the London Daily Express calls Pattinson's take "a spirited performance." But most agree with MTV's Kurt Loder, who says, "As soon as Pattinson steps forth with Dalí's famous up-twirled mustaches pasted to his face, the picture collapses."

Well, meow to you, too.

That isn't necessarily bad news for Pattinson fans, however, especially if you're open to a long-term love affair...

Despite the mixed reviews, veteran casting directors are calling Pattinson's choice in films brilliant, especially if he wants a long career.

"Tween girls buy movie tickets but don't win you Oscars," says casting exec Lisa Hamil, who worked on The Notebook and Alpha Dog as well as the new film One-Eyed Monster. "Hollywood is very quick to typecast, and once that happens, an actor's career can flatline."

Here's where tweenie fans may feel a bit of panic.

"All of us would still attempt to cast him in tween roles, but I'd be shocked (and a little disappointed) if he took another one," Hamil reveals. "It's the same reason Daniel Radcliffe did Equus. These guys are in it for the long haul and have learned this elemental truth: You grow up with your audience."

In other words, once the Twilight franchise wraps, kids, don't look for Pattinson in another teen-candy role. Even vampires need to grow up sometime.

In my opinion, he's giving the people what they want.  

The type movies he has been cast in don't require the greatest acting skill because they are just personifying stories people already know...all people want is a pretty face to look at.

Apparently, his face is pretty enough for two HUGE series movies.

Sad Day.

I have my website ready to go, but not I'm-gonna-pay-60-bucks-to-post-it-for-a-year ready.

I will have it ready for Monday on a jump drive, but I just can't dole out the money for the web hosting right now.

This Is SO RAD!

Stop Motion | The Long Haul from DUMAIS on Vimeo.

A Series Of Unfortunate Events

Students hit by car

By AMBER POMPA

Two pedestrians were struck by a car, while trying to use the crosswalk on Culver Street Tuesday.

Around 8:48 p.m., Commerce Police and Fire Departments responded to an auto-pedestrian accident on Culver Street in front of Whitley Hall.

Officers arrived to find that a small four-door car traveling westbound on Culver struck two pedestrians in the crosswalk.

The driver of the vehicle stated he did not see the pedestrians as he approached the crosswalk.

Both pedestrians were transported by ambulance to Hunt Regional Medical Center, though it didn’t appear to first responders that those injuries were life threatening. The driver of the vehicle was not injured.

The pedestrians, as well as the driver of the vehicle are all students at Texas A&M-Commerce.

In response to the accident, university officials will hold a meeting with the Texas Department of Transportation this week regarding the the crosswalk.

David McKenna, A&M-C executive director of facilities and support services, said safety at the crosswalks on Highway 50 and Culver have "always been a concern of the university and, over the past few years, steps to improve the warning lights and crosswalks lighting have been taken."

"We continue to look at ways to improve the crosswalk notification system, and to that end, a meeting with TXDOT will be held this week to discuss additional enhancements," McKenna said.

The City of Commerce and TXDOT share control of Culver Street because it is a city street and a state highway, he said. "The City of Commerce has always supported our safety efforts there," McKenna said.

One of the guys was Josh from our class *if my information is correct*

Last I knew he was still in the hospital.

I almost hit him earlier that night, too...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

There are no words...

FORT WORTH -- Whatever happened to spoiling your grandchildren with cookies?

A gun-toting granny clad in pajamas and house shoes robbed an east Fort Worth convenience store early Thursday, telling the clerk, “I am doing this for my grandkids.”

The robbery occurred about 3:45 a.m. at the RaceTrac convenience store at 1840 Eastchase Parkway.

According to a police report, the woman entered the store, grabbed an orange drink, then told the clerk she needed two cartons of Newport cigarettes and two cigarillos.

The clerk said when he turned around from retrieving her items, the woman pulled a handgun from beneath her pajama top and ordered him to open the main register. She threatened to shoot the clerk if he did not comply, warning “this gun has a hairline trigger.”

The woman fled with the money, cigarettes, and cigarillos. She is described as black with a light complexion, 40 to 50 years of age, 5-foot-6 to 5-foot-8-inches tall, 160 to 190 pounds. Anyone with information about her identity is asked to call the robbery unit at 817-392-4370.

It Was Just One Of Those Days

Car plows through Commerce store

By DANIEL WALKER

A trip to pick up a pizza ended with a car plowing through the front of the Liberty Bonds next to Pizza Hut on Live Oak Street Wednesday night.

Loyd Field said that he was coming to pick up a pizza at about 7:40 p.m. when the accelerator stuck on his Mercury Grand Marquis. “It just wouldn’t stop,” Field said. “The tires were still spinning when the car stopped in the building. I was able to put it in reverse and back out, and then stop.”

Commerce fire chief Brian McNevin said fortunately no one was injured despite the accident occurring in a strip mall with two crowded restaurants. “The car went into a vacant business, between the two restaurants — Subway and Pizza Hut,” McNevin said. “It looks like the accelerator stuck and he couldn’t get it to stop.”

The car and the building suffered extensive damage.

After the accident, firefighters loaded Field’s groceries in their fire engine and then transported Field, his pizza, and the groceries home.

F.T.P. ?

I heard about this the other morning while driving back to school.

The video is more frightening than I thought it would be.

This just goes to show that just because we are a democracy and have a 'stable government' doesn't mean the people in charge can be trusted all the time.

This article/video is from after a concert involving bands such as We The Kings and Forever The Sickest Kids.

Suffice it to say, this is pure prosecution without justification.

The lady at the end of the video is the final kicker... she's more worried about people standing on the street outside her apartment (to document the brutality so they can back up their pending complaints to the city with physical evidence such as this video) than the fact that people are getting the crap beat out of them for no reason by the Philadelphia police.

What is this horrible world coming to?

Whipped. 

When In Paris...

These are just a few shots from Paris today.

Frailty, Thy Name Is Woman.

This makes my soul smile.

Every day should be 'Talk Like Shakespeare Day".

CG...I'm talking to you.

Shakespeare Day

New Definition of Stupid.

This is shear stupidity.

Sometimes, I wonder what people are thinking when they attempt records like these.

And then I wonder where they get all the free time to just text away.

If you spend all your time texting, how do you have time to do anything worth texting about?

Read this crap.

Gah.  Stupid people...

Statements on Art

    After discovering my love for photography in middle school, I have aspired to do something important with it.  Working with people to preserve their memories, and create a few of my own along the way, is a large contributer to my success as an artist, and as a person.  Mainly, I like to focus on portraiture, but am always looking for outlets to expand my horizons.  My interest in all forms of art including orchestral music, painting, theatre, and films has greatly influenced my style and outlook on life.

Coming Attractions And Days Gone By

Oh goodnes, this weekend went from crap to awesome.

I experienced my first concert by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

And, may I say, I am now an addict.

I have always wanted to go, and so this weekend, we saw Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3 for Organ.

Oh my gosh...

I cannot even describe to you the joy that overcame me when Strovinsky and Saint-Saens organ music pulsed through my whole being.

I swear, the woman playing that giant, beautiful pipe organ had 30 fingers.

It was fantasmal.

Yeah, that's right.  

It was so awesome, I had to make a new word for it.

We sat in the Choral Terrace so we could see all of the musicians music and look up behind us to see the woman playing organ.

I loved looking under the keyboard to see the keys moving.

It was like watching Fantasia.

I pictured all the colors of the rainbow.

There was a lot of red. :O)

But that probably will not compare to this coming weekend.

I looked in the program to see that they are playing Mozart's Requiem...one of my favorite classical pieces of all time.

So,  I have convinced my mother that after we finally see the Tut exhibit on Saturday, we should have a nice dinner in Dallas and then enjoy a lovely evening at the symphony.

I am too excited for words.

Jubilant would probably best match my emotion.

AUGH!  CULTURE!

Web Map

Home Page

Contact Info with About Me Blurb

Albums Page with links to Current and Past Work

Not much, but I suppose it's a start.

When Ya Got Soap, You Can Wash.

The Pond--Moonlight by Edward Steichen was the highest priced photograph ever sold.

$2,600,000.

Oh the things you learn from Genius of Photography....

Banging In My White Tea.

Today is April 15th.

Do you know what that means?

TEA PARTY!

Strategically planned on the due date for filing of federal income taxes, thousands of Americans across the United States have been staging modern-day tea parties to protest Obama's stimulus plan.

Many are upset because they don't feel they should be charged with other people's failed business ventures.  This is understandable.  I, myself, do not want to pay the consequences for other people's decisions.  But at the same time, it is sad to see the little 'Mom&Pop' shops go down due to our failing economy.  But change is inevitable, and everything cannot be expected to be bright, cheery and positive all the time.

Also, parents with young children are afraid for their children's financial futures.  Yes, the stimulus seems like a good idea now, but really, what are we doing?  We are just pushing debt back so we don't have to face it and deal with it now.  Some parents even took the day off and checked their children out of school to go protest the stimulus plan holding signs stating 'Keep your hands off my piggy bank'.

These are scary times, but we have gotten through them before i.e. The Great Depression.

Hopefully, the voice of the people will be heard, and these bailouts will be retracted.

Bottom's up, mate.

Jacko Went Whacko...er...

Recently, an auction of Michael Jackson's possessions from Neverland Ranch was cancelled.

After a preview of the show had already happened in LA, Jackson's production company sued the auction house to halt the sale.

Auction items included the infamous crystal glove, a golden throne, and the gates of Neverland Ranch themselves.

After the highly publicized child abuse cases Jackson was acquitted in, Jackson was forced to move away from his ranch and sell partial ownership due to financial insufficiencies. 

People are actually sad that they aren't going to be getting a 'piece of Jackson' after all.

Crazies...

Bo Bo

THE WORLD CAN SPIN AGAIN!

THE OBAMAS HAVE FINALLY FOUND THE FIRST DOG!

Bo is a 6 month old Portuguese water dog.

Obama was given the dog as a gift from Senator Ted Keneddy, Democrat from Massachusetts.  If you ask me, lil Ted there is fishing for brownie points.

Nevertheless, the Obama girls are over joyed and all is well in the White House (dog-wise at least). 

On a humorous note, it is called a Portuguese WATER DOG.  One of the only comments from the girls was that they were worried about the dog not knowing how to swim.

Do they plan on tossing it in the Reflecting Pool?

Wow...

I amaze myself.

I've already lost count of how many time's I've seen the afore mentioned movie.

Tonight, my friend brought over the director's cut.

Oh gosh, this was a mistake to start watching at 9:30 p.m. when I have a 7:30 math  class...

Amadeus. Not Falco.

Recently, I have acquired what some would call an unhealthy obsession with the movie Amadeus.

I love everything about it.

The plot.

The history.

The characters.

The music. *duh*

And the actors.

When I really like something, I envelope myself in it.

As soon as I went home for Spring Break, I scavenged our family CD collection for any classical music I did not already have.

Yes, I have always loved Vivaldi and Beathoven, but I wanted something more.

There was not near enough Mozart to fill my craving.

I went and bought a 4 disc set of Mozart's piano sonatas.

I bought a compilation album from popular artists who picked their favorite instrumental classics.

I still want more.

Requiem, to be more specific.

Along with my scavenging for music, I have been researching the discrepancies of the movie and the real life of Mozart.  

For instance, Amadeus depicts Mozart and his wife Constanze as having only one child.

This is a falsehood.

In reality, Mozart his wife welcomed 6 children into the world, of which only 2 survived longer than a year.  Neither married, and neither had children.  Neither did Mozart's sister, Nannerl, ending the blood line of the Mozart family. :O(

Mozart was not murdered by Antonio Salieri either.

His untimely death has been concluded to be due to rheumatic fever, an immune system disease.

Though there was some tension between Mozart and Salieri, it did not go farther than that.

Also, ensuing my curiosities, I wanted to know more about Tom Hulce, the man who played Wolfgang in the movie.

Looking at his past and present work, I was really excited to see that I have been supporting him for a few years now.

He was the voice of Quasimodo in both Disney Notre Dame movies, the crazy office psychologist in Stranger Than Fiction, AND (this was exciting for me), he was the lead producer of the Tony Award winning best musical of 2007, Spring Awakening.  

That was awesome for me because I went to Houston with my best friend this January to see the last production of the musical before it closed forever.  

In addition to his work with Spring Awakening, Hulce was the original 'Daniel Radcliffe' in Equus, which, me being a girl, obviously did not hurt my feelings. ;O)

Oh my gosh, there is so much more...

I can't stand it.

I hope I keep with this current obsession for some time.

At least I'm learning a lot that actually matters.

I've been listening to my Spring Awakening soundtrack for the majority of the day.

When I heard about S.A., I threw myself into the history of the play *Written in 1890 and banned because of mature content* and the story of how the modern musical came to be.

I read the book in an hour.

GAH!

I LOVE CULTURE!

Gather Your Courage...

Miru Kim.

Heard of her?

She's pretty rad.

And asian.

And an amazing photographer.

I love her color saturation.

I was watching an Ovation special and she was a featured photographer.

It reminded me of Vaughn saying we need to not be afraid of ourselves.

Check this cat out.

She lets a rat scurry around her desk while she works.

Also, appreciate the simplicity of her website.

Super fancy is not always key.

http://www.mirukim.com/

So, I am well aware that our self portraits are due tomorrow.

I am also certain that I have more than enough to fill the requirement of 72 pictures on a contact sheet.

However, I have not filled my bank with executed ideas.

It's not because I haven't been working on them...actually, I've been neglecting a lot of other things I should have been doing in order to work on these pictures.

However, sometimes, I think my ideas are bigger than my capabilities within the given time restraints.

I wish I could be like David LaChapelle.  He has a whole crew of people that help him execute his ideas and get them done.

But at the same time, I like to do everything myself so I know it is exactly the way I want it.

Also, I feel like I can call the finished product entirely my own and not feel like I am jipping other people out of credit for hard work well done.

Whatever.

I have to admit, I like my photos that I have edited and posted between this and Facebook, but those that I have not, I am not proud of.

I don't really care that this project is basically over.

I want to finish all of my ideas, so I will continue working on it.

Sometimes I wish I only had photo classes so I could dedicate my whole being to my ideas.

Emulations and Photographers to come...

Progress...

Googley

Conquer Your Enemies

Love Birds

Awake 

Toes

Open My Eyes That I May See Wonderful Things In Your Law...

Psalm 119:18

Eyes with Forest.

Visions.

Scribbling.

Lazy Hands Make For Poverty, But Diligent Hands Bring Wealth...

Proverbs 10:4

Inspiration taken from John Coplans.

Time To Pretend...

These are a couple of my self portraits so far.

Honestly, I don't particularly like any part of my body.

So I thought I would try to focus on things I like the least.

Then, I will work towards the parts I do like.

As you can probably guess, I don't like my neck.

So I started there.

Leave your thoughts.

In a Photograph, you cannot peel back the shades of gray; below the emulsion is whiteness: the alchemy is in the coating.

So, I have recently fallen in love with the work of Sylvia Plachy.

Her photos are fun and unexpected.  I think she brings a vintage feel to modern times...and I LOVE that.

And, woah dang...She is Adrian Brody's mom!

I had seen her work on an Ovation special before, but I had forgotten about her...

I'm glad I found her again!

I feel like my style related to hers before I had even seen or heard of her.

ATLANTIS!!!!!! Or not...

Supposed evidence of the city of Atlantis has surfaced off the coast of Africa.

In the Google Earth tool recently added to the popular site, people have been speculating that a suspicious grouping of lines under the ocean floor are actually the man-made streets of the fabled Atlantis.  Google denies this claim however, stating that the lines are actually reflections of the boat trails that used sonar to map the sea floor.

I would show you a picture, but I get really mad when photos are made into slideshows using Adobe Flash Player because it is then impossible to copy and paste them.

Alas, I resort to the dreaded posting of a link.

http://news.aol.com/article/google-earth-atlantis/353546

My Random Musings

So I'm copying CG's idea.

Sue me.

1. My favorite color is crimson.
2. I am currently sitting under my friends' bed.
3. Sometimes I wonder what I would have been doing right now if I hadn't have quit band at the end of 10th grade.
4. I am terrified of people I don't know.
5. For lent, I am attempting to give up stress.  (Can you really give up an emotion?  We'll see...)
6. I adore spontaneity.
7. My goal in life is to make a difference.
8. I don't care if I'm ever famous, I just want to be remembered for something. (Other than my laugh.)
9. I hate people touching my feet/making me touch their feet.
10. I may act goofy a lot and say stupid things, but I really invest a lot of thought into my friendships and look for opportunities to better them.
11. I look forward to Saturdays at midnight so I can see the new PostSecrets for the week.
12. I have 2 pet turtles named Vincent and Theo.
13. I also have a cat named Nermal. (The cousin from Garfield.  Anyone who knew that before I specified wins brownie points with me.)
14. Nobody loves Peanuts comics more than I do.
15. Music is the air I breathe.
16. Even though I never feel like I set a good example, I love God with all my heart and hope that I have helped others realize their love for him as well.
17. On that note, at one point in my life, I almost felt lead to be a youth minister.
18. I can only eat one food at a time.  No mixing of tastes!
19. I never do anything with my hair, but I am still obsessed with it.
20. I am ecstatic that Slumdog Millionaire and Kate Winslet got what they deserved at the Oscars.
21. I don't think it's possible for me to name my favorite movie.
22. I want to sneeze with my eyes open one day to prove everyone wrong.
23. A lot of Vaughns' weird outbursts make me feel better because now I know someone else has thought my thoughts.
24. I got 45 stitches when I was in the 3rd grade.
25. I HATE knowing change is coming, but most times, once it has happened, I'm okay with it.
26. My favorite word is conundrum and I get really excited when I find opportunities to use it in everyday conversations.
27. When high school was over, one of my saddest realizations was that I wouldn't really have anymore opportunities to wear fancy dresses.
28. When I am done eating and have leftover food on my plate, I make sculptures out of it so I will be less tempted to eat the rest of it later.
29. I hate Texas.  It's big.  Ugly.  And hot.
30. If I could live in my shower, I probably would.
31. My closet is categorized by type of clothing and then sorted in color order.  (Most of the time.)
32. I came to Commerce because of my 10th grade photo teacher Mr. Hale.  (I didn't even apply anywhere else.)
33. If I hadn't have come here, I would have loved to go to SCAD or CalArts or FIDM.  Dream big, right?
34. I went to Mexico for an hour and bought a lamp.
35. My family and I walked out to Ellis Island to find that the last ferry had left just minutes before.  I then threw a snowball at my dad's head and he yelled at me.  My mom and I laughed.
36. When I was 15, I was driving around Memphis and was about 8 seconds from being plowed over by a train.  We ate an entire bag of Reese's Pieces in celebration of our continuance of life.
37. I could probably hang out with Demetri Martin for the rest of my life and be okay with it.
38. When I am driving around listening to music, I pretend like whatever I see out of the window is the music video.  Sometimes it's amazing how well they go together.
39. I eat peanut butter with a spoon.
40. I suffer from a severe case of dry-wit/ sarcasm.
41. I think it's weird that I am at the age when my friends are starting to get married and have kids.
42. There is something about the number 42.  I'm pretty sure it follows me around.
43. I like playing games like soccer and racquetball but if I am exercising for the pure sake of exercising, I would rather shoot myself.
44. I wish I was born in the late 40's or 50's so I could have my prime years during the hippie movement.
45. I want to be friends with people I think look interesting.  I never have the courage to talk to them though.
46. I love chocolate and bread in a bad way.  You can't tell, can you?
47. After seeing Across the Universe with my friend, we attempted to steel a shopping cart but didn't succeed because it wouldn't fit in the back seat of my car.
48. My favorite food in the world is quiche.
49. I can't decide if I am like everyone else or if I am just so different that I blend in with everyone else who is 'different'.
50. I was a crayon for halloween one year.  (Purple or blue...I don't remember.)
51. I have absolutely no arch whatsoever. 
52. My favorite show in the world is Boy Meets World.
53. Now that I think about it, most of the shows I like to watch were on in the 90's.
54. A lot of people think I do drugs.  This is a falsehood. 
55. Before I die, I WILL attend an indie film festival.  Preferably Sundance.
56. My dreams are either super realistic or super out there.
57. Any time someone says a number, you can bet I am trying to divide it by 2 as many times as I can in my head.  It's a tick.
58. I love the 4th of July because of the fireworks.
59. I'm accident prone/ attractive to bad luck.
60. I only want to go to France to visit the Louvre and the catacombs.
61. It wouldn't hurt my feelings to study abroad in Italy or England for a semester.
62. My current favorite bands are tied between Bishop Allen, Idlewild, The Strokes, Eisley, and every song on the Spring Awakening soundtrack.
63. Oh, speaking of that, I hate musicals with the exception of musicals about musicals with the exception of High School Musicals.
64. I like to think that I have a pretty broad vocabulary.
65. If I wasn't going to be a photographer, I would either like to have been a model builder for movies or an English teacher.
66. I am attracted to crazy people i.e. Vincent Van Gogh, Edgar Allen Poe, Emily Dickinson, etc...
67. I have a deep-seated love for trees.  I don't think God made much else more beautiful.
68. The only sport I ever really played was soccer.  I wasn't very good, but I liked it anyway.
69. At my first home game, I was marching backwards and fell flat on my butt.  Fantastic!
70. I'm not short.  I'm fun size.
71. I'm a totally different person once you get to know me.
72. I'm proud to be from Mississippi, but you couldn't pay me to move back there.  Everything has just gone way down hill.
73. My birthday is 9/11, and I get really tired of people feeling sorry for me about it.  I feel terrible for what happened and all the families that lost loved ones, but I can't ever have a normal birthday again because people are always feeling down in the dumps on that day.
74. My grandpa's birthday is the day after mine.
75. I am a firm believer that God gives us road signs to direct us where we need to go in life.
76. As a family tradition, my mom and I always watch Sleepless in Seattle while wrapping Christmas presents.  My dad and I always watch The Grinch and Charlie Brown Christmas.  It's probably one of my favorite past-times.
77. I wish I was more interesting.
78. I had a lisp until like 2nd or 3rd grade.  I still have to think about how I say stuff sometimes.  (I should probably never read this sentence out loud.)
79. I hate disappointing people.
80. I barely ever paint my finger nails but my toe nails are almost always colorful.
81. My legs remind me of a short, inverted Mrs. Bellum from the Power Puff Girls.
82. For most of my high school career, I grew my hair out long in an effort to look more like Topanga on Boy Meets World.
83. I have double jointed toes and fingers.
84. I can't whistle.
85. I am never tan.  I go from liquid paper to red back to liquid paper with more freckles.
86. It makes me really mad when people don't follow through on their promises/ obligations.
87. I am terrified that I am going to be an old cat lady.
88. I'm all for saving the planet, but I hate that it has become a fad that people are only profiting from the merchandise sales with. 
89. I used to be convinced that Chester the Cheetah was a tiger and called Cheetos Tiger Chips.
90. When I was young, I would go into my back yard and gather all the empty terra cotta pots and put berries and leaves in them and mush them together to pretend I was Pocahontas. 
91. Both of my parents are teachers.
92. I'm pretty sure my dad came out of the womb reading a book.
93. I love saying inside jokes around people so they wonder about what is going on.
94. When I was a junior, I was tackled at a football game in front of both teams bands, cheerleaders, drill teams, and our school rowdy crowd.  It was the talk of the school for the next week.
95. I was runner up for Most Humorous.  I lost to a girl who apparently was neither funny nor popular.  Her mom was a teacher in charge of the polling.
96. I had a scottish terrier when I was young.  I named her Pertie because I thought she was a dalmatian.  She barked at water and our next door neighbor was a gardener.  There was much cussing.
97. My parents let me name our first beta fish.  I called it Soda.  In later years, we would come to have an aquarium of fish named after the cast of Star Trek.
98. I try to find God in most of my pictures.
99. One day I will compile a soundtrack to my life.
100. I have cute pinky fingers.

Tadah!

Tight.

Police in Kansas City, Missouri were astounded when they arrived on the scene of a shooting to find the victim strangely unharmed.

After her boyfriend went on an angry rampage, Briana Bonds was found by police in her car with an attempted murder on her hands.  Due to her incredibly tight weave, the bullet that had been careening toward her head was deflected and therefore saved her life.

Thank God for hairdressers. 

Head Fake

The other day I was cleaning my room.

I desperately needed to.

It was driving me crazy.

But as I was organizing my desk drawer, I looked up at my alphabetized books.  

The one on the end is my favorite...The Last Lecture.

I started thinking about what that book meant to me. 

It took me forever to read it.

I get distracted easily.

But I finally finished it this summer.  

I was on the bus coming back from my last church camp ever.

I wasn't really sitting with any of my friends, so I thought it was the opportune moment to finally finish the book.

When I got back to the church, my mom was waiting for me.

She took me out to lunch in Denton and we drove around town to spend time with each other.

She asked how camp was, and how the drive back was.

When I told her that I had finally finished my book that morning, she looked at me with grave eyes.

She told me that Randy Pausch, the author and pancreatic cancer victim, had passed away just that morning.

I didn't really know what to say.

Obviously, I had no personal ties with the man, but by reading his book about living out your childhood dreams, I felt like I had gotten to know him quite well.

It made me think about how we need to appreciate what we have right now.

Don't keep making plans for tomorrow and the day after that.

It might not be there.

Then I realized I couldn't really remember any of my childhood dreams.

Like every kid, I wanted to be a vet at some point, but I honestly can't remember any deep-seated passion within me.

The only thing I vividly remember is that one Easter Sunday, my family and I went to a park to take pictures.

While we were walking around, I found a camera that had been lost in a field of grass.

We walked around asking people if the camera belonged to them, but no one would claim it.

I think it was a sign.

And ever since that day, I've become more and more involved with photography.

I think God puts little road signs in our lives to direct us where to go.

Even if we don't realize they are there, we can look back in hindsight and realize...

This was meant to be.

Please watch his lecture.  

It is an hour and sixteen minutes, but well worth it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

Roll, Roll, Roll In Ze Hay!

How early is too early to start sleeping around?

This is a heated topic amongst religious and family groups, but I don't think they were ready for the curve ball being hurled at them in the form of a 12 year old boy named Alfie Patten.  Along with his 15 year old girlfriend, Chantelle Steadman, Alfie welcomed a daughter into the world last Monday.  

I find this ridiculous.  When I read that the two children plan to stay in school and raise the baby to have a good future just to prove everybody wrong, I actually laughed out loud.  This is absurd.  The British police are refraining from pressing charges against the children because it is in nobody's best interest.  

What's more, England has had the highest rate of teen pregnancy out of all of western Europe.  385 girls under the age of 14 became pregnant between 1998 and 2007.

What is this world coming to?

Rootbeer Floats Make Him Cry.

Disclaimer: Please scroll to the bottom of this post and view upwards.

This is the facial reaction to the first sips of one of Mabel's rootbeer floats.

Priceless...

Picturing....

These are some of my better portraits from our venture to Cooper.

Please critique, I'd surely appreciate it!