On Formal and Procrastination

As I write this I am putting off my much needed piano practice. But I'm not just doing this from the safety on my room. No, my procrastination knows no bounds. I'm actually sitting in a practice room at a piano. Listening to some student play Zelda music on the piano actually, it's rather awesome.

But I digress! I'm actually writing this post from my phone. *insert gasp* what is this world coming to? I don't know, but I'm liking it so far.

Saturday night was Formal, a sort of college prom minus the slow dancing :( and plus a lot more drunk people. It was awesomeeeee. Anyway! Being the photographer I am I took my baby and snapped away as everyone started their transformation from normal beauty to gorgeousness. ((also, being the photographer I am I have absolutely no shots of me :( sad day))

To edit these pictures I actually transferred them to my phone to edit them in Instagram. Yes, I am that obsessed. I just haven't found a comparable photoshop actions.

Anyway, I loved the retro look Instagram gave the photos anddd the blurring options they have. It's pretty epic. Just saying.

Since it's been a little while since I posted I thought I would just procrastinate some and write this little update of my life. :) by the way, I have no idea what's gonna happen to the pictures when I hit post....so let's see!

My New Love

So I have a new love in my life.

And, no it's not a guy.

It's Instagram.

I know, I know, I'm kind a little late joining the bandwagon. For a while, Instagram has been the only thing I've been hearing about. How amazing it is. How fun it is.

I just was never convinced. I downloaded the app once, but then got confused. I didn't realize you had to make an account just to edit any photos, so I deleted the app and continued on with my life.

Recently, though, for some reason or another, I download the app again and gave it another try.

And I have to say; I'm in love. It's pretty amazing.

Not only does it add pop and interest to your iPhone photos, it also does wonders to any other photos. These photos were taken by my baby, the SLR. I pulled them from Facebook, and then ran them through Instagram.

And I have to say; I'm love the results! It's similar to finding an amazing set of Photoshop actions to edit all your photos by. I've searched for Photoshop actions similar to the instagram actions so I can continue the amazingness on my my computer, but so far I've come up short.

So it looks like all this love and amazingess will have to stay on my phone for a little longer ;)

On a separate note, I found a way to wirelessly sync my photos from my phone to my computer. This means as soon as I take a photo on my phone, it is sent to my computer, granted I'm in a wi-fi network. Pretyyy epic.

Anyway, instagram is reminding me how much I love taking photos on my iPhone. It used to be my only camera. Then I moved onto my compact, and then onto my SLR. While the iPhone can't, of course, rival the clarity or ability of my baby, it does get props for just how convenient it is. I always have my phone on me, while I don't always have my SLR on me.

:)

Dix-Neuf

Aujourd'hui, j'ai dix-neuf ans. :) Today, I turned nineteen years old.

It was the first time in a while where I had a chance to celebrate my birthday. For the past couple of years I've been at All-State during my birthday. Eight hours of practice is not much fun on your birthday :P But, luckily for me, my All-State years are over. :D Today, I got a cake for my birthday, courtesy of the amazing Hendrix caf staff. It was so much fun to eat with my friends and have caf; a good birthday lunch. And for dinner, I was able to eat with my parents. And today, I've gotten two good tests scores back; so overall it's been an amazing nineteenth birthday.

Nineteen years......is it sad that I already feel old? I mean, I do plan to live to be 107 and eleven months and all so technically I'm not that old. Still...nineteen...one last year as a teenager. Then 20, then 21 :D ...then the rest of my life.

Anyway, this is a short post; just wanted to document my nineteenth birthday :)

Il Fait Neige!

Or at least it was, on Monday :) Snowing, for those of you who don't speak French.

Even though the weather channel said it was supposed to snow, it also predicted warm weather. So, I wasn't getting my hopes up. Then, Monday morning I wake up, and run to the window, peering through the blinds.

And saw that the ground had been lightly covered in snow. The snow was still raining down, the soft flakes falling against the wind.

I only had one class cancelled. After all, the roads weren't bad at all and everyone who goes here pretty much lives on campus/close by. After classes, my friend and I eagerly ran out to play (take pictures) in the snow, which was already starting to wash away thanks to the afternoon rain.

Our beautiful campus, covered in snow ;)

It was nice to see the snow, even if we didn't get much. After it being 70 something at the beginning of February, I had ruled out the possibility of snow this winter.

There were these three fir trees, nestled close together that were beautiful with the snow still clutching to their branches. For some reason, whenever I take a landscape picture, I'm never happy with how it turns out; it's always just too bland. I prefer close ups. Regardless, the fir trees were a perfect portrait opportunity

My friend :) This was my favorite out of the bunch; I like how she isn't looking straight at the camera. I've always preferred natural pictures to posed ones.

And a rare photo of yours truly ;) Being the photographer I'm always behind the lens rather than in front of it. Still, I set my camera on auto and gave it to my friend, who wanted a picture of me.

The fir tree ;)

We wandered around campus, shivering as the wind tore past us. By the end, I couldn't feel my fingers; but it was worth it. All for the shot, eh?

:) Valentine's day was yesterday, and I have nothing to complain about. Who needs a guy when you have such great friends?

I wish

I promise I have a legit reason for not posting for so long. ((though I swear it feels like I just posted yesterday))

My life has been crazy, and not in the good way. In the stressful-I-hate-college-why-does-my-life-suck kind of way.

But on another, more cheery note, I did another tattoo recently. :D I was hanging out with some friends, and this picture of a tattoo was on the computer screen. It was really pretty, a dandelion that being blown away. I kept staring at it, and really wanted to draw it. So, I borrowed a black pen from someone, and sketched it on my arm.

I kept extending the little strands of dandelion until they curled around my arm and dashed up my hand.

Sadly, the ink faded reallyyyy quickly, and it was all gone in a couple of days. I would love to make my tats a bit more permanent, but no where near a real tattoo ;) I've thought about using a Sharpie, but that's a really harsh, black line. I prefer the lighter marks of pens.

And this is how crazy my life has been recently. I scheduled my day, from 1 to 11 trying to get all my work done. ((and yes, I did schedule in Criminal Minds...hey, a girl needs a break every now and then)) Somehow I managed to finish everything that was due today without too much stress.

Hopefully, things will start to slow down, just a little.

Hopefully.

Jerry-Rigged Chinese Food

So I've been thinking recently.

And I think that this picture accurately sums up my college life thus far:

It's left-over Chinese food in a cup. The previous night, some friends and I headed to our favorite, dirt-cheap Chinese restaurant. They give you sooo much food; too much for a normal person to eat all in one setting, so I brought the leftovers back to the dorm and stuck them in the fridge. The next day, Tuesday, was my crazyy day. I have class from 8:15-9:30, break, class from 11-4, band 4-5:30, dinner 5:30-6, film showing for my class 6-8.

Anyway! It was during my break before 11, and I was hungry. Not hungry enough to go all the way to the caf for an early lunch, but still, hungry. Then, I remembered the leftovers still in our fridge. So I pulled out the Styrofoam take home box full of cold rice. Then I realized that we didn't have anything microwavable safe in the room. So I searched the room, and found one thing, a plastic cup, that didn't have the 'non-microwavable safe' label on it. Totally legit, right?

So I loaded the cup with the Chinese food and stuck it into the microwave. The cup now has these kind of weird crack looking things at the bottom but oh well. :P The food was good!

Anyway, I felt that that epitomized by college life. Cheap and Jerry-rigged.

Also, I've been messing around with some songs recently. Perhaps I'll post a video of my singing them.......proobbaabblly not though. ;) I only let a couple of friends hear me. Who needs judgement anyway?

My piano set up :) so much easier to practice when it's midnight, raining, and I don't feel like walking across campus to the music building.

Reason #15 why I love Hendrix: Themed Lunches. We had a Luau themed lunch :D One of the beloved caf workers-- who knows everybody's name by the second week, no joke-- handed out leis to everyone. :) They had shrimp, and crab, and all this fresh fruit; it was amazing. One of these days I'm gonna bring my camera into the caf and photograph my food ;)

Anyway! Just another little college update. Love life:non-existent. Date to Formal:non-existent. Annnd that is all.