Epic

So remember yesterday how I was complaining about having nothing to shoot and not really much motivation to get out and do stuff? Well, I may not have worded it that way, but I was definately needing something to do. I was doing jumpropes in my room, which should be physically impossible do to me being 6'4'' and my room being so small. I just tried not to scrape all the popcorn off the roof or knock my tv over in the process. But either way, rain or shine, I need to keep my ankle active now that I tore a ligament I need to soften it up so it can heal. Though it looks like surgery may be my only option at this point :(

Anywho, I finally got around to editing the pics  I took from friday's lunch break. take a look!



Notice anything different about the two pics? see if you can find all five differences. (basically the top one has 5 things less than the bottom one)




The first one was just his car. A mitsubishi lancer evolution, or as we call it, and 'EVO'. But for my homework this week I had to take a portrait of two people without a face showing, so I asked the owner, who happened to work with me in the office, to step outside and stand by his car acting cool. Then I HDR'd him with the car. YUP that's right, both of those pictures are made up of 9 different pictures blended into one, so luckily Ricardo (owner) stood still enough not to make ghosting or blurring effects.

As for the other portrait, well, I have about 130 shots from tonight to go through. The sun came out to play today and my good friend John called me back to go shoot at the beach with him and his girlfriend. So now I have shots of myself, his girl, him, and him and his girl together... and I only need to use one. sheesh this is hard!

On the way home from the beach I got a txt back from my friend Rosalie and went to hang out. I took her to pick her kids up from Awanas and then dropped them off as we went to Dennys for some biscuits with gravy, mozzerella fried cheese melt, and some french silk pie. AND OF COURSE ROOT BEER, DUH! After that we went to her house where our other good friends Krista and Aubree were waiting with the kids. We continued to play with bubbles until we got the amazing idea to start a game of volleybubble. Basically, since I'm the best bubble blower around, I blew huge bubbles and then everyone tried to blow it around and pass it to eachother. I got some video footage of it on my phone but am too lazy to go hook it up and load it to youtube and post it for you, but next post I will definately show you the carnage that ensued.

So all in all I had a pretty good weekend, despite my girl bein over in Las Vegas, I've been through enough to understand that time and separation can actually bring people closer together as they realise how much is missing in their life once they are away from eachother long enough, so I can't really complain, I'm just glad that she's happy and slightly jealous she got to go see Chris Angel and Phantom of the Opera live. (not at the same time obviously)

Well, gonna get goin to bed now, gotta get up for work in the mornin. Thanks for stoppin by and have a great week! Whoever it is reading this, don't be a stranger, feel free to make use of that comment box below. It's not for some stupid view count or personal acknowledgement thing, I just simply love when people take the time to show some love once in awhile. I mean, you got this far already, you must have spent at least a good 5 minutes if not more just reading all this nonsense, possibly 15-20 minutes if you paid attention and checked out all the photos on their actual webpages and viewed them large. So what would it hurt to say hello or some feedback on what you liked/disliked/would like to see about my writing, or at least simply to let me know you were here so I know I'm not just typing to one or two people with a bunch of other people reading a few words and being done with it, haha.

Well, take care!

~sw23

Christmas...lol

First off, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! Yeah, I know, a little late. Deal with it. =P

So today I was posting a photo



And while writing the description on my flickr I included a "Merry Christmas" and it dawned on me that many of my flickr friends and regular friends who will see that still try to play the "X-mas" game. You know... trying to make such a blatant and visible point of how opposed they are to acknowledging Jesus' place in their lives. So I went ahead and put this little side note for them to better understand how pointless their mockery is:
                     "I do hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. And for those of you who don't celebrate the birth of the Christ, don't feel awkward or offended, since the 25th of December is nothing but an observance derived from "Yule" or winter sulstace, also called the "birth of the sun" which early catholics thought they could more easily convert people by observing a religious holiday on the same day as a non-religious observance."  Most biblical and historical scholars will gladly tell you that Jesus was NOT born in december by any means.

And that's just it. All these people get in such a hissy fit and bad mood when someone says merry Christmas, as if the name of the holiday is going to offend anyone. It's like me getting all pissy when someone says happy St. Patrick's day because I have a problem with everyone named Patrick or something. Seriously. Grow. Up.

And then you get the other side of the pengelum with some of the more radical Christians trying to act like they're offended when someone says happy holidays, or when the Savior of the universe is replaced with commercialism and consumer-based messeges...even if you claim to be "Not of this world" you still live here and you're going to have to live with 'worldly' things taking control of ... the world. Deal with it. The only attitude you can change by arguing about God Vs. Consumerism is your own.

So this is my OPINION, I'm just going to throw it out there before I get blog-raped by all the people who didn't bother reading the historical fact quoted above.

I see the 25th as merely a chance to spend time with loved ones and family, 'cause if someone came to save the world, His birth and life should be celebrated every day, not just once a year. Even those of you who think I'm an idiot for Who I believe in can still agree with that. If someone is THAT important to the universe, they would have Christmas every day, which is actually what we're called to do anyways, though few will follow through. But no matter what your beliefs are, the holiday season is meant to bring family and loved ones together to share love and fellowship with everyone. So no matter what you believe in, understand that the 25th of December is a great opportunity to tell someone that you love them. And for those of you who call yourselves Christians, don't get offended by someone taking 'Christ' out of Christmas and start getting upset. Is God so weak that He would need you to come to His defense????? We are called to correct our brothers and fellow believers, not to scold and mock those who don't even know if they're doing anything wrong. So everyone. EVERYONE please just get along and get over the whole religious debate, if only for one day of the entire year. Those of you who don't believe, please enjoy your holidays, and for those of you who call yourselves Christians, start using all 365 days as they were intended to be used, not just the one day.

So to sum it all up, please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying one side or another is right, wrong, or the other. What I am saying is that the most offensive part about Christmas to me is just that; taking sides and trying to put everyone else down for not observing the day in the same way they do.

Well, there you have it. That is my rant for the week. And it just so happens that I'm a Christian. Not catholic, not mormon, not any other look-alike, not even a religion. I'm not the best example, but I have a relationship with the One who denounces all religion. Including the one that claims to be named after Him. Blows my mind sometimes how hypocritical I can be, so I'll just take the chance to apologize for those of you who read this post and automatically label me. I think Dogwood said it best in one of their old punk rock songs on stage to thousands of onlooking Christian teens: "If you see a perfect Christian, you know damn well he's not."

Please be safe and have a great New Years! Can't wait to step into a new decade with a fresh start as well as (hopefully) a fat tax refund. Haha!

AND DON'T FORGET THE COOKIES!

'Til next time all you... reader(s)

I'm going to give you something awesome. Hold out your pinky toe and open your nose.

WOOOOOOOOOAH! Has it really been that long? Oh well, my one and only follower sees me on a near-daily basis, so I guess slacking off on this blog isn't the biggest blunder of my month now is it? So what have I been up to? Let's see, well last weekend I finally got to edit a picture on sunday and even wrote a short song-ish poem thing to go with it.



Then later I got together with Momo again and we watched some funny movies; My cousin Vinney, The Whole Nine Yards, and I can't remember the other. It was a blast as usual, and I got to introduce her to my dad and one of our local fav's, Lombardo's Deli. We had a really good meatball sammich. Then for dinner we went to Red Robin and got matching burgers. And after that we went to the parking lot outside of the Coffea Bean by her house and played guitar sitting on my trunk. It was nice. She even got to hear me humm and pretend to sing for like 5 seconds.

Then on monday my buddy Gabe asked me to go shoot after work with him because it was so foggy and eerie. We went right back to the same place Momo and I visited the night before. So I figured Momo was only 40 yards away why not call her and see if she could come hang too. This time we went behind the Coffee Bean where I discovered an entire harbor and a field with this creepy looking tree in the middle of the fog. The way the lights hit the foggy air just made it that much more creepy and I simply had to get a picture.



We took a bunch of other pictures in the night, and eventually we ended up on the bridge going over the harbor as we were surrounded by 5 security patrols. one in a car, 3 on foot and one on bicycle. And we had some random cat making "Mow" noises, but it honestly sounded like a middle aged man mixed with a cat being stepped on. It was hilarious. We took some awesome shots from the bridge, one of which I actually thought looked better crooked. Get what I mean?



 I got to the middle of the bridge and laid down in the middle propped up on my bag. Gabe took pics of me looking like a bum and then the rent-a-cops started closing in, so we headed out.

Then things calmed down a bit as the regular work week ensued. But last night Momo told me that her mom actually insisted that she come hang with me. WOW! So we came back to my place so I could do some wash. OH YEAH!

Ok new side story 'Cause I don't feel like going back and finding out where this fits in the week, so deal with it. On sunday while Momo was over I tried to do some laundry and found that the washer was broken. I haven't washed my work pants in a whole week and I really needed to wash some socks because I had none clean. But since I didn't have time to go to the laundromat with my schedule, I just went ahead and bought some socks at K-Mart. 10 pair for 5 bucks, not bad! Finally I ask my landlord what's up. He says he is looking for a new one but can't find any good deals on craigslist in Camarillo. I turn around, walk to my computer and type in "washer" on craigslist, and the very top, first listing available, posted less than an hour ago, is a washer, in Camarillo, for 50 dollars...Epic win.

So anyways, he got it and we watched Shawshank Redemption while I washed my work clothes and such. Yay.

Today was alright. The first 4 hours of my day went by pretty fast. We had a company luncheon with a professional taquiador or however you spell it. Basically he makes tacos for a living. And they had hundreds of little cheesecake bites, so naturally I had to take 14. Mmmmmmmmm.  And the next 6 hours of my shift was meh. It was raining all day, and still is right now. Thanks to my website upkeep and enrolling in school I just so happen to be in debt and can't afford a rain coat or an umbrella, and my boss informed me that he couldn't get one today so I had to try to do the paperwork in the rain without getting it wet...Yeah, right. Long story short I had a pocket full of wadded up wet papers to scan. I also had to think like mcguyver and wrap an empty coffee filter bag around my scanning gun and tape it up so it didn't get wet. Then I snuck over to St. Francis (my old job) and steal their staple gun so I could ensure that the wet barcode tags would stop getting blown off by the wind and rain. Man, if I wasn't the only person who witnessed my creativite and quick thinking I swear I would have been tested for halucinagins and then promoted to some awesome position where my brain could better be put to use. But alas, no dice. But my Uncle did bring me this nifty rain suit, and he just so happened to get my favorite color, green! I looked like the forest-green...lime flavored kool-aid guy. But the self-proclaimed "Mexican spokesman" in the office got the other guys to start calling me avocado man. Then I remembered I had a $10 WalMart gift card, so I took my half hour break and got a matching green umbrella. They all had a good laugh when I got back. =P

So that's my week in a not so nutshell. Oh and I found a buried treasure in my unfinished photos folder that I totally forgot to post back when I actually shot this a year or so ago. So here you go. Booya!



And now I will return to my not-so-ordinary life, listening to Pandora radio and chatting on yahoo while racking up my killstreak on black ops. An hour ago I went 23/1 in a TDM, yes, I'm a beast. But what can I say, representing the world's finest requires a good deal of ownage. Don't believe me? Here's my 3rd highest K/D ratio from Modern Warfare 2.



Yeah, yeah. Video games. Nerds. Whatever you want to say, I'm fine with that. That clan tag is there for a reason, and if you want to put the conrtoller down and feel what it really is like when I'm hunting you, we can have that arranged. No I'm not gointg to kill anyone, I'm referring to paintball. DUH! You wan't to kill people, go enlist. Otherwise you're all mine mwahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaapickle.

Ok, back to socializing with Moomoo. Weeeeeeeee!