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Richard Bram

I have found an awesome photographer. My cousin and I saw a few of his photos at the OKC Art Museum, and we were so impressed that we wrote his name down. Awesome stuff -- I hope I can get prints.

In OKC

and I found a mac store:

I'm visiting family (cousin got married!) and will have a nice recap and photos when I get back. I've got a few photos up at flickr site. I wasn't the wedding photographer, but I took a ton of photos. Good thing too, because the photography was a whining idiot who complained about the lighting the whole time. We're hoping he got some good shots, but, if not, there were enough people taking photos from different angles that almost everything was covered.

Another Canoeing Trip

Two years ago now (wow, I can't even believe that), I posted about a canoeing trip I took with a friend.

Today, I did vaguely the same trip, but we didn't go as far. I went canoeing with two friends from high school that graduated with my brother. One of them is a co-worker, and the other used to spend all sorts of time at our house, so I know both of them pretty well.

Photos beneath the cut. There's a few of me that got taken on a disposable camera, but I have to wait until I develop the camera to put those up.

My new mission in life

to visit the Georgia Aquarium (note: link is photo intensive). Wow.

Getting Excited about Ann Arbor

Just about two blocks from my future house is the People's Food Co-op. From the sounds of it, it is populated by shopping hippies like me that walk to the grocery store with our canvas bags. They've got bulk bins of spices and other stuff. They've got vegan and vegetarian stuff (note: I still eat meat too; can't a girl like tofu as well?). Sounds so exciting.

Plus, there's the Ann Arbor Council for Traditional Music and Dance. The have two weekly swing dances, English country dance, and contra dance. Oh, wait, I'm supposed to be going to school and doing homework . . . but I am totally finding time for one or two of those activities. Ideally, I'll be able to settle into going dancing at least once a week a part of my workout regimine.

Yay, Michigan.

What to do with old letters?

I'm currently cleaning out my closet in an attempt to pare down my belongings. I've hauled everything but my clothes (which is still a lot of stuff, because I have closet system with an insane amount of storage available) into another room for objective sorting.

One big issue: old correspondence. I have several shoeboxes full of old letters dating back to my childhood (I was a hopeless romantic of a kid, so I wrote letters to all my friends and got a lot back). I don't read it very often, and it doesn't do me any good sitting there on the shelf. However, I can't summon the courage to pitch it, because they represent part of my life and are also irreplacable.

What do my readers do? Do any of you save your letters too? How do you deal with the space they take up? Is there a way to condense the space they take, or should I just get one big box and make everything fit in there?

I've thought about scanning them, but then you lose the beautiful letter quality that makes them exciting to open. It's not quite as much fun opening a JPG on your computer as it is pulling out an old letter that you haven't looked at in years.

Recap of my week

Monday: Attended my grandfather's funeral in Milwaukee. Normally, funerals are quite sad occasions, but this one wasn't bad. It was strange to see my dead grandfather, and I felt bad that I haven't made any contact attempts in the past, gosh, 9 years? It's been awhile. We've talked on the phone a few times, and I know he cared about me, but we weren't particularly close. The funeral was good in many ways because I got to see my family. Two great aunts, a great uncle, and several cousins from my mom's side even attended to support us (and also to get in some extra time with us, I think -- I spent a bit of time chatting with them after the service). Also in attendence was a good family friend who happened to read the obit notice and show up. Finally, the service was good because we had some familial closure. After the service, we gathered at my uncle's place to hang out, and my dad, his two brothers, and his two sisters spent the better part of an hour singing while I sat back and enjoyed the wave of music and the harmony of my family together.

Tuesday: Flew home. Had Dick's Drive In for dinner (to cap off a weekend of bad eating -- we indulged in all our favorite Milwaukee places, including two nights at a custard place we love). Walked the dog. Mostly a boring day.

Wednesday: Spent the day wondering what day it really was (my sense of time is all screwy). Managed to make myself get to the gym, but it took two hours of convincing. Wanted to work on cleaning my room, but actually spent time making dinner and watching a movie with my mom (Eternal Sunshine).

Thursday: Managed to get to the gym earlier today. Continue to have moments of "Wait, it's Thursday, not Friday." Started to move stuff from my room into a larger room for sorting and cleaning (I really need to get rid of a lot of stuff). Made dinner, walked dog again. BEAT TONY HAWK! This was my big w00t achievement for the night; I beat a skating video game on the custom skater mode. Now, I just need to go through and beat it on all the standard skaters (mock-ups of real life famous skaters). Should be easy now that I've figured out how to get all the goals.

Tomorrow, I plan to continue emptying my room, run on the treadmill (light workout day), and go work at the Mariner's game. Hopefully, I can extricate myself from the internet; I've had a horrible time recently of spending way too much time futzing around on the net.

Compelling Digital Photography

I'm a bit out of practice, and you can see it in my photography. Even my photos of New Zealand were far below the beautiful pinnacle I achieved while studying art in the Netherlands. It's time to remind myself how to shoot, and what better way than to read about someone else's digital photography classes?

via Kottke

Powers of Ten

Powers of Ten is a wonderful science video that shows how important math is. An order of magnitude really starts to matter here. Yes, it's much cooler than the description I just threw together (It's Sunday at 7 am as I'm writing this, and I'm just about to leave for the airport).

via Kottke

Out of town for a few days

My grandfather died Thursday morning, and I am leaving tomorrow to attend his funeral. Still not sure how I feel about the whole thing; I'm a bag of mixed emotions. I think it will sort out once I get there and everything becomes more real.

I tried the new online checkin thing, and I'm not sure I like that either. Somehow, printing out an airline ticket on a sheet of printer doesn't seem quite real.

So surreal right now. The world is a strange place. At least I can still count on some things -- I weeded my neighbor's yard today as promised, and then she invited me to stay and have dinner with her family (they felt bad that I was left alone while my parents went ahead to arrange details). A friend came over for a short chat and a coke this evening. My future roommates and I continue the vetting process to try and find our last two roommates for next year. The world keeps spinning, and there is still beauty, truth, and solidity somewhere; I think it will take me a few days to come back down and find it all again.