Some Concert Photos

Sometimes, I try to get some good content generated and it takes me a while because I get busy or I suck…  I’ll admit it, blogging daily is hard sometimes.  That’s how September fourth originated.  But people have started subscribing to me, so I always feel bad if I have an extreme lack of content while knowing there are readers.  And especially since I feel like I’m even less exciting now than back then.

So, rather than focus on a September fourth type post where I tell you that I’m busy with work, yay, and need money, boo, I’m going to post some pictures I took at a concert last summer.  Some of them are a little blurry, so I’ll only feature the best ones.  There’s actually sixty-seven all total, so enjoy the eighteen best.

One of my hobbies I don’t really talk about often is my love of photography.  I really like taking pictures, but usually they’re of my friends.  So, this is one of the few times I’ve taken photos of an event.  So enjoy.

These are from the June 21, 2010 Backstreet Boys concert in Colorado.

Writing as Art

Happy Labor Day!  I’m currently writing this up during lunch before I go out and go shopping.  If you’re wondering about my to do list, I paid my dues today, yay.

A day or two ago, I started thinking back on a story I wrote a few years ago.  With that in mind, I pulled it up and just looked it over.  It took me two and a half years to write and is a bit under 150,000 words in fifty chapters.  I remember that back when I was still finishing it, I was also editing up chapters from the beginning.  So, I decided to pull it up and reread some of the chapters, particularly the ones that had crossed my mind.  The old edited chapters I read were pretty much fine, but the unedited ones left something to be desired…

What actually amazes me is that I started writing this story way back in September 2005.  I know that’s not that long ago, but I’m still impressed that it’s been five years since I started it.  Just looking back on it, it’s amazing how much time and effort went into writing it.  I haven’t written anything like that in years.

Reading it over, I decided that I might go back and finish editing it some more, just to get back into the whole writing thing in addition to this blog.  Plus, after thinking about it, and reading over it, I feel kind of guilty for never finishing editing it.

Near the end, I also thought about when I was finishing it up in the Spring of 2008.  So I think tomorrow I’ll tell a story from back during that time.  It doesn’t really have anything to do with this post, of course, but I think it’s a pretty good story.

Anyway, this is a short update, but it’s just what I was thinking about this weekend.  Also I’m starting the recruitment countdown.  Four days!  Thank goodness!

Good Quotes

So I woke up this morning and knew that last night was unfortunate.  I am currently consoling myself with Dead in the Family.  I’m enjoying all the time I’ve been able to spend reading things I like.  Sadly, I am almost out of Sookie Stackhouse novels.  The next one won’t be out until next May, probably, so in the meantime, I think I will get back to rereading Les Miserables.  It’s one of my favorite books, actually, and it should keep me occupied for a while.  Today, my best friend Steph is taking the GRE–she actually started a half hour ago.  I’m not worried about her; she’s an engineer.  To celebrate, we’re going to have girls’ night some time next week and see a Rockies game.  It’s going to be awesome.  I think tomorrow we might watch the Rocky Mountain Showdown at a sports bar.  If only I wasn’t a poor Post-Grad, then I could have bought tickets, but I’d rather save my money for Georgia and Homecoming against Tech.

But anyway, since last night was apparently an unfortunate one, I couldn’t think of anything to write about this morning.  I checked Facebook (which I haven’t been checking every day lately, but my phone said I had a few messages) and I noticed a quote on my profile.  I think I put it there my junior year of college when I took Literary Theory.  The professor was one of my favorites going through college because she was always hysterical and interesting.  During a discussion on Postmodernism, she said the following statement and it has always been one of my favorites since, as it stands, it’s in the little box under my picture.  I don’t really know if anyone else pays attention to those.  Anyway, the quote is:

“The world is meaningless? Let’s not pretend that art can make meaning then, let’s just play with nonsense.”

To really understand postmodernism, you need to understand modernism.  They are actually pretty similar, aside from what this quote emulates.  Modernism is a focus on lamenting the fragmentation and incoherence of the modern world, such as war.  Modernism has a lot to do with the concept of war, generally and for whatever reason.  This lament seems to support the idea that the world is meaningless.  Postmodernism, in contrast, recognizes the meaningless in the world and rather than lamenting it, it celebrates it.

I like the idea of celebrating nonsense.  So much happens in the world that doesn’t make any sense at all.  Even in each individual person’s life, so much is nonsensical.  I rather like the idea of taking this as something to appreciate rather than fear.

In any case, this is something that has always stuck with me since I heard it junior year.

I think everyone has some sort of quote or idea that sticks out to them.  So I feel like the little box under the profile picture says a lot about a person.  I’ve had a nerdy English major quote under my picture for about two years now.  One of my other friends changes her quote every few months and it’s always something hysterical.  Many of my Greek friends note their sorority affiliation.  The quotes people associate with themselves is a marker of who they are.

A good quote says a lot about a person.

Also, if you would like to read more about postmodernism, here’s a link to some notes on it: Postmodernism

Deidree the Arteest

As I said yesterday, this month’s theme on NaBloPoMo is “Art.”  So, I’m going to talk about my first major.  But first, here’s a daily update.  I had a follow-up appointment this morning for my surgery.  Apparently, I’m healing well.  I’m currently on “Dead and Gone” and I was able to get “Dead in the Family” at the library, so I won’t have to buy it to read it, yay.  I mean, of course I’ll be buying it when it comes out on paperback, but this surgery is giving me a lot of time to read, so I don’t really want to wait that long to read it if it’s out.  I have nothing against hardcover books, but all my other books in the series are paperback, so it would just stick out awkwardly compared to the others.  I’m currently on season five of Gilmore Girls and I just watched my favorite episode “You Jump, I Jump, Jack.”  Logan is my favorite Rory boyfriend, easily.  That’s pretty much what’s going on post-surgery.  I heard from Shawn too, so that was interesting.

Regardless, I started college in Fall 2006.  This was around the time when I had high hopes for my future career in art.  Clearly, that didn’t happen.  However, I actually made it through three semesters as an art major.  I took two foundations courses, a drawing course, and two art history courses.  The art history courses were great.  I’ve always found art history to be really interesting, plus you get to look at a bunch of pictures for all of lecture.  Really, it’s just pretty awesome in general.  The only downside was that the book was a beast.  The drawing class was alright too.  I got to keep art supplies in a tool box and I turned an iclicker brown with chalk.  My favorite was our art trip to the mountains.

But Foundations…  Foundations was hell.

I never really know quite how to explain it, but let’s pretend you decide to be an art major in college.  If you want to be an art major, you already know what you’re good at from having taken other art courses in your life.  By this point in time, you would be very certain of your art weaknesses.  However, Foundations decides that you need to do everything and be judged by your skill, no matter how long you worked on it or what kind of effort you put into it.  Oh, and it was easily six hours of class time a week, plus outside work, and only worth three credits for two semesters.  Ridiculous.  Also, every art history major had to take both semesters of Foundations and I know quite a few of them hated the art requirement.  I don’t blame them since I was an art major and I hated it.

During my third semester as an art major, I decided to switch my major to English, which has always resonated better with me.  So at the end of that journey, I went back to my books.  I also haven’t drawn much in forever.  Foundations just does that; it leaves a bad taste in your mouth.  My only regret is that I didn’t get a chance to take a photography course.

Anyway, there’s my short story of my time as an artist.

Periodic Diseases

So I looked at my phone this morning when I woke up and saw that it was September first.  Yay, September…  I signed up for NaBloPoMo this month and so I plan on writing one post every day.  I’m hoping this will bring more people in to read my blog.  Let’s see what happens!  September’s theme is “Art,” so I’m hoping to incorporate that some way every day.  Today I’m posting a favorite painting.  Tomorrow, unless I come up with something else, I’ll tell you all about when I was an art major.

The other thing that’s happening in September is recruitment.  This is my first year helping as an alumna, so I am both sad and a bit relieved, but I am really looking forward to it.  And, one of the things I’m looking forward to most is not getting sick!

Every year in college, I’ve had a periodic disease.  Freshman year, it was the flu and the first time I caught it was the week before finals.  This was the worst time ever to get sick!  Honestly, how can anyone have a good semester when they can’t study for finals?  It took me forever to learn verb conjugation in my foreign language correctly because of it too.  I caught it again after recruitment in January.  Really, it may have been the same one.  There was a blizzard that year, so I was out in the snow a lot.  I had to drive to work, go sledding, and all sorts of things.  Oh well, at least I got the flu out of the way for the next three years.

The next year we had Informal Recruitment in the fall and Formal Recruitment in January.  I don’t actually think I had an illness this year (except for a cold, but I have colds all the time, so I’ve gotten used to it), but I know I scraped up a knee during or after both recruitments.  Fall semester, I fell on some concrete due to a freak accident.  Spring semester, I slipped on some ice.  My entire right knee is pretty much scar tissue these days.  Back in June, I was hiking up the Flatirons and on the way down, I slipped on loose gravel and fell.  It took a few weeks to heal, but somehow managed to still look ghastly when I showed up for work in the middle of June.  After healing, it didn’t hurt at all, though, until a filming crew at my summer job made me sit in a paddle boat for an hour.  Those boats don’t paddle anyway, but combine that with campers who don’t paddle and you wind up with an injured knee.  I had to ice it for hours, it was really, really unfortunate.  But, now I know not to paddle in a paddle boat for an hour.

Junior year was my favorite, as far as periodic diseases go.  I was able to enjoy laryngitis that made me sound like a prepubescent boy and a smoker all at once.  The laryngitis always started off as a cold.  I don’t know if this happens normally, but it was enjoyable to spend a week with a runny nose and feel horrible and then be fine, but sound horrid.  That happens to me all the time.  People always worry about my health once I’m finally on my way to a speedy recovery.  I just looked it up on Wiki, by the way, and a viral infection often causes laryngitis.  I also had laryngitis this summer, but it was from screaming and cheering during mini Greek Week at work.  It wasn’t actually Greek Week, but that’s what it reminded me of.  I really don’t mind getting laryngitis from screaming, because I like to think it makes me hard-core, or something like that.

Senior year was the worst, on par with the flu.  Both semesters I caught a cold that became a horrible upper respiratory infection.  The part I remember hating most was the eye drops, fever, and quarantining myself.  Therefore, I’m hoping that I don’t have to deal with this again this year, or ever again.  If I never have another upper respiratory infection, I will be eternally happy.  At this point in time, it’s the little things that matter.

So anyway, that is my big goal.  I’m hoping with everything I have that I won’t be getting sick this year.  I won’t have the stress of staying up late and waking up early, working after the recruitment day is over, then setting up, or running around frantically in preparation.  I do have the drive up to school when I decide to go up to help.  I might go every day, but I haven’t decided yet.  Definitely Saturday for sure.  In any case, with the fact that I can go off and do my own thing (even go out or see boys since I’m no longer subject to no boys/no booze during recruitment) or go home and rest.  But, yup, that’s the plan!  I’m hoping that maybe this surgery will tide my body over from wanting a periodic disease.

So, as for the art part of this blog, here is one of my favorite paintings, “The Starry Night” by Van Gogh.  I love the bold strokes and the color contrasts.  I love that the church is in the center with its high steeple.  I could have seen it when I went to New York, but alas, it wasn’t in the game plan.  Anyway, I’ll just let you all admire it.

The Starry Night