no light photography

greg

shot with close to no available light. man, i do love this camera of mine. it had trouble getting a focus lock because there was not enough light in the scene, so i had to switch to manual. sure, there’s a little noise, but man, i never thought that i could do this.

neighbors

my roommate and i have now lived in the same apartment for about fice and a half years. in that time, we’ve probably seen something like 10 neighbors move in and out of the apartments surrounding us. but the spot that seems to move the most is the apartment directly below us. i don’t know why, but man, that place keeps rotating tennants.

i’m positive it isn’t us. it can’t be us, right?

yeah, that’s what i keep telling myself.

summerland

oh man, i haven’t been keeping up with this show, but i LOVE the tension, angst, and torture that the characters are going through. the love triangle between eva, simon, and johnny is GREAT. it brings me back to the days of dawson’s creek.

eva and simon are getting married. it doesn’t seem like eva and simon share the same kind of passion that eva and johnny (her ex) shared. eva’s kids and friends believe that eva is settling with simon because she could have a secure life with him. i think she even knows that deep down, but is too afraid to admit it because then she won’t know what to do with her life. all of her friends don’t think that simon is the guy for eva, either, but they are supporting her because simon is who she needs, despite what they really want or what they think is best for her.

ultimately simon figured out that eva’s heart isn’t really into him. he realizes that she doesn’t really love him. he realizes that he fits the image of what she considered enough or ideal in a marriage. he realizes that he isn’t really the man for her and he leaves her. i think it takes a great man to recognize this and it takes incredible amounts of courage to walk away.

the biggest compliment

i got an email today from one of the guys that i play volleyball with today. in the email he asked me if i was going to be playing in a summer tournament, and if so if we could play together.

one of the things that i really try to stress when playing volleyball is that this is about having fun. sure, there’s a competitiveness to the sport, but there’s just nothing more important than enjoying what you do.

in past seasons where i’ve been the captain of the team, i’ve been very concerned about whether or not the team was having fun. and so when i was asked to be captain this season, i had some reservations at first about it. but it seems to have worked out really well and i think i’ve made a few new friends in the process.

but i think it is a huge compliment to be asked to play on a team with someone else. i bet the guy doesn’t realize it, but it warms the heart.

unintentional pick up line

i was playing volleyball the other night and there was this girl sitting on the sidelines that looked very familiar. inbetween points, i’d glance over at her and she’d sort of look back with what seemed like a reciprocal recognition. finally, in the middle of the game i realized where i had remembered her from and what her name was.

after the games, i went up to her and said:

me: hi. do i know you from somewhere?
her: uhhh, no, i don’t think so.
me: is your name Angel?
her: nope.
me: oh. i’m sorry. it’s just that you look like this Angel that i know.

immediately after that all her friends were like “ooooooh!” i had then realized what i had said and then blurted out “oh no! that’s not what i meant!”

man, if only i were that smooth intentionally…

trying not to be one dimensional

i was talking to a friend the other day and we were talking about love, hope, and where one draws the line between holding out for true love and getting realistic and making compromises. i guess all through the years, i still cling on to the hope that i will find my true love. i guess a big part of me still wants to believe that i can have it all. it’s a scary thought to think that i’ve been on the dating circuit now for close to 15 years and i still haven’t gotten it right, but i’m not sure what it is that has kept this hope alive.

my friend asked me if i knew exactly what i was looking for. was i too picky? was i asking for too much? i told my friend that i don’t think that i’m being too picky, but if i happen to meet a fun, cute, pearl tea-loving, volleyball playing, photography enthusiast, i wouldn’t complain.

but then i got to thinking about how similar i really would like my significant other to be. i wouldn’t consider the pearl tea thing a must, but it’s awfully nice seeing how much of it i consume, anyway. as for the volleyball playing or photography…i don’t know, those are my interests and though i think that i would enjoy sharing that part of my life with my significant other, i wonder about how it would be like if i dated someone who was big into those things. too similar might be kind of boring. i think having a nice balance of the two is probably ideal.

i know that i do not deal well with women who are difficult. well, does anyone really say that they want someone who is difficult? probably not. but i think that with women who have very strong personalities and are overbearing, i don’t think that i would tolerate too much of an attitude thrown at me. it’s a bit of a turn off.

but anyway, the reason i bring all of this up is because i’ve come to realize that volleyball has taken up 4 of the 7 nights of my week. i think that it may just be getting a little excessive! i need to tone it down a little and find some other interests. what they may be, i’m not sure.

the art of conversation

sometimes i feel like i’ve lost the ability to make conversation. i think that i had honed my skills back in college where i would spend countless nights up late just talking. i guess that’s part of the whole college experience. but i felt like i had many more engaging conversations then compared to that of now.

i’ve lost that skill. the art of conversation is amazing because for those who have it, you will never be bored. you can make anyone, anywhere an event.

i think it’s time to bone up on my conversation skills.

josiah

i finally remembered why i added josiah to my list of names used at fast food places. that is the legal first name of the president in the west wing. i thought it was a cool sounding name and i started using it.

speaking of the west wing, there was a quote that struck me. one of the presidential nominee hopefuls was making a speech about another hopeful and how he failed to disclose some personal information which the voting public may have needed to have been made aware of.

i think he didn’t disclose it because we’re the hyprocrites, not the bakers. because we’re all broken, every single one of us, and yet we pretend we’re not.

we all live lives of imperfection, and yet we cling to this fantasy that there’s a perfect life and that our leaders should embody it. but if we expect our leaders to live on some higher moral plane than the rest of us, well, we’re just asking to be deceived.

now it’s been suggested to me that i should try to buy your support with jobs and the promise of access. it’s been suggested to me that party unity is more important than your democratic rights as delegates. that’s right, it’s not. and you have a decision to make. don’t vote for us because you think we’re perfect. don’t vote because of what we might be able to do for you only. vote for the person who shares your ideals, your hopes, your dreams. vote for the person who most embodies what you believe we need to keep our nation strong and free and when done that you can go back to seattle and boston and miami to omaha, to tulsa, to chicago and atlanta with your head held high and say i am a member of the democratic party.

movie overload

i decided to go on a little movie watching spree this weekend. sometimes it’s nice to just relax and veg out in front of the tv. i watched first daughter, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, and raising helen.

first daughter was almost exactly the same movie as chasing liberty. and though i am a big, big katie holmes fan, i really enjoyed chasing liberty more. it’s odd because most of the critics liked this verison of the movie more, but i didn’t really. there were some nice transitions in the movie, though.

i thought ethernal sunshine of the spotless mind was going to be one of those artsy movies that i wouldn’t be able to get into, so i’ve been a little reluctant in watching it. but it is essentially a love story and i loved it. very creative approach to the whole storytelling process.

raising helen was the last movie of the bunch. it’s a cookie-cutter movie whose story has been told many times, but i still enjoyed it. not as much as i thought i would, but still a good rental.