Showing posts with label photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photography. Show all posts
23 July 2010
Mama, Don't Take My Kodachrome Away!
It always makes me sad when I learn about some type of film or another going extinct. Kodachrome couldn't have had a better send-off, though.
28 April 2009
Beautiful Weather = Photos!
It's officially springtime in Boston! As such, I've taken a million pictures with the snazzy new digital camera I got for my birthday a while back... I promise a real blog with actual text about the amazing stuff that's been going on around MIT and Boston is on the way. But for right now, I'm going to rely on the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words, and leave you all with some photos! Enjoy...
[Mmmmm, dining... My camera has a "food mode" that's supposed to help make the food look "more appetizing". I think food from dining is going to need a bit of help in that department.]
[Mmmmm, dining... My camera has a "food mode" that's supposed to help make the food look "more appetizing". I think food from dining is going to need a bit of help in that department.]
26 March 2009
WOLVERINES!
Fear not, my dear and faithful readers! I am, in fact, alive. MIT and the usual things that just come up in life have kept me from blogging. Exams, papers, p-sets, resumes and applications for government jobs that probably don't actually exist because of budget cuts (thanks a lot, NRCS), helping run MIT's debate tournament, and Spring Break have basically made life incredibly busy. Well, saying that Spring Break is making my life busy is kind of a lie - I'm spending Spring Break here in Boston, with very little to actually do. I guess I've been exploring the city, using my camera, and reading, instead of blogging. On the upside, I finally saw Watchmen.
(Funny story - I went and saw it by myself in the afternoon a couple of days ago at the AMC Loews (a.k.a. professional wallet rapists - $8.75 for a matinee? REALLY? and $8.50 for a small popcorn and a small soda? REALLY?) in Boston Commons, and looking around the theater, I noticed something. Everyone there was there by themselves. Yep, I saw Watchmen with all of the other single, loser comic book (... I mean, "graphic novel") fans, most of whom were probably seeing it for the fifty bajillionth time. Needless to say, I walked out of that theater with a little less dignity than I walked in there with. Oh, and my verdict on the movie: it was awesome! I don't care that the ending was different, I was completely happy with the movie all the way through.)
I was also pretty excited to get my hands on a copy of the new Decemberists album, The Hazards of Love. Reason #1340974519384 why I love being a member of WMBR: I was listening to The Hazards of Love last Saturday. It came out this past Tuesday. I didn't have to pay for a thing. Promotional copies are fantastic. This new album is the first of their full-lengths to not get a score of at least 8 from Pitchfork, and for once I agree (Pitchfork and I are usually not the best of pals - Pitchfork doesn't know this of course, but I tend to disagree with most of their scores, and their reviewers... but what do I know, right?). While this album clearly has the usual hallmarks of a Decemberists album, it lacks a few elements that make a Decemberists album truly great. This album is much darker than their previous works (yes, it is possible - gone are the days of songs of vindictive sea-faring orphans - they've moved on to talk of killing babies), and the songs are clearly intended to be listened to in order. The single, "The Rake's Song" can only be truly appreciated in context with the other songs on the album, which present the listener with a very detailed and intricate plot line that can occasionally be difficult to follow without the liner notes (which they've generously provided on their website). I once told a friend of mine that of all the musical groups I listen to and love, the only two that I feel can do no wrong are Spoon and the Decemberists. I still feel this way, and will continue to unconditionally love the Decemberists despite The Hazards of Love. I mean, I like it, but I think I'm going to go back to listening to The Crane Wife and Castaways and Cutouts.
There's no rest for MIT students, though. Well, I suppose I could have not done any work over break, but I would have payed dearly for it next week. So interspersed between all the exploring of Boston and photography and literature binges, I've been working on my 14-page museum exhibit design proposal for my writing class. Surprisingly, it hasn't been that bad. Maybe it's because I love writing, or maybe it's because there's not really any pressure right now. No clue. Regardless, I'm certainly not complaining. We also had a requirement to critique a speech or presentation for my writing class, which I'm knocking out tonight by going to a forum on food locavorism, which should be interesting. I'm interested to see how they portray agriculture and family farms.
And finally, the reason behind the blog title: wolverines are BACK! Those things are vicious, and I hope I never come across one while camping or hiking. I think I'd probably hyperventilate. Or have an asthma attack while running away. Actually, the asthma attack is probably more likely.
[Congrats to the MIT Class of 2013! Can't wait to meet you all at CPW and in the fall!]
(Funny story - I went and saw it by myself in the afternoon a couple of days ago at the AMC Loews (a.k.a. professional wallet rapists - $8.75 for a matinee? REALLY? and $8.50 for a small popcorn and a small soda? REALLY?) in Boston Commons, and looking around the theater, I noticed something. Everyone there was there by themselves. Yep, I saw Watchmen with all of the other single, loser comic book (... I mean, "graphic novel") fans, most of whom were probably seeing it for the fifty bajillionth time. Needless to say, I walked out of that theater with a little less dignity than I walked in there with. Oh, and my verdict on the movie: it was awesome! I don't care that the ending was different, I was completely happy with the movie all the way through.)
I was also pretty excited to get my hands on a copy of the new Decemberists album, The Hazards of Love. Reason #1340974519384 why I love being a member of WMBR: I was listening to The Hazards of Love last Saturday. It came out this past Tuesday. I didn't have to pay for a thing. Promotional copies are fantastic. This new album is the first of their full-lengths to not get a score of at least 8 from Pitchfork, and for once I agree (Pitchfork and I are usually not the best of pals - Pitchfork doesn't know this of course, but I tend to disagree with most of their scores, and their reviewers... but what do I know, right?). While this album clearly has the usual hallmarks of a Decemberists album, it lacks a few elements that make a Decemberists album truly great. This album is much darker than their previous works (yes, it is possible - gone are the days of songs of vindictive sea-faring orphans - they've moved on to talk of killing babies), and the songs are clearly intended to be listened to in order. The single, "The Rake's Song" can only be truly appreciated in context with the other songs on the album, which present the listener with a very detailed and intricate plot line that can occasionally be difficult to follow without the liner notes (which they've generously provided on their website). I once told a friend of mine that of all the musical groups I listen to and love, the only two that I feel can do no wrong are Spoon and the Decemberists. I still feel this way, and will continue to unconditionally love the Decemberists despite The Hazards of Love. I mean, I like it, but I think I'm going to go back to listening to The Crane Wife and Castaways and Cutouts.
There's no rest for MIT students, though. Well, I suppose I could have not done any work over break, but I would have payed dearly for it next week. So interspersed between all the exploring of Boston and photography and literature binges, I've been working on my 14-page museum exhibit design proposal for my writing class. Surprisingly, it hasn't been that bad. Maybe it's because I love writing, or maybe it's because there's not really any pressure right now. No clue. Regardless, I'm certainly not complaining. We also had a requirement to critique a speech or presentation for my writing class, which I'm knocking out tonight by going to a forum on food locavorism, which should be interesting. I'm interested to see how they portray agriculture and family farms.
And finally, the reason behind the blog title: wolverines are BACK! Those things are vicious, and I hope I never come across one while camping or hiking. I think I'd probably hyperventilate. Or have an asthma attack while running away. Actually, the asthma attack is probably more likely.
[Congrats to the MIT Class of 2013! Can't wait to meet you all at CPW and in the fall!]
19 February 2009
Playing Catch-Up: Part One
I have officially been the worst blogger ever, and I sincerely apologize!!! IAP, the beginning of the spring semester, and extracurriculars have eaten up every spare moment I have, and unfortunately blogging hasn't been too high up on the priority list lately. Now that I have two p-sets due tomorrow (and I haven't started either one), blogging is suddenly the most important thing EVAR. Aaahhh, procrastination...
A lot of things have gone on since I last did a real update (not my "Ah! Look at this cool site so I can feel like I am actually posting something you'll want to read so I don't lose the meager readership I have because that would be lame! And I really don't want to be as lame as I already am!" posts), including the wonderfulness that is IAP, a couple of fantastic concerts, Pi Beta Phi recruitment (yes, a sorority...), and the first couple of weeks of my second semester here at MIT. Because this is a lot to cover, I'm going to split things up a bit. This is the first installment in a series of posts I'll be making over the next few days that cover what's been going on in my life so you know I'm not dying out here in Massachusetts, and that I can still form coherent (or somewhat coherent) sentences as proof that MIT hasn't completely broken me just yet.
So first thing's first: IAP!
IAP was amazing. I feel like I could have done more with my time, but I also feel like I could have relaxed more. In the end, I think relaxing was the better choice, because it made the start of the semester a little easier. So, here's what I did over IAP:
1. Darkroom photography class: I had blogged about this a little earlier, but that was in the middle of the class. It ended up being a very worthwhile class for me to take. I've had a fair amount of experience with darkrooms in the past, but it was a nice refresher, and I learned about printing with colored filters, which I had never done before. I still have a lot of photos I need to print, but this is one of my favorites that turned out even remotely well and is the product of many hours of frustration and many wasted pieces of photo paper:
2. Retaking 18.01: yeah, that didn't work out so well. I didn't do so well on one of the exams, so I ended up failing it again over IAP. As a result I'm retaking 18.01 again this term. I've accepted that I am just completely terrible at learning math, and it just takes me more time than most people. Oh well. Thank goodness MIT has such wonderful grading policies freshman year.
3. Debate Tournament: NorthAms is a debate tournament that happens every year, the title a shortening of "North Americans." Teams from a number of Canadian colleges that participate in CUSID and American colleges that have APDA teams gather either at an American or Canadian school (it switches every year - this year it was in Amherst, MA at Amherst College) for a debate tournament. The rules are this strange hybrid of CUSID and APDA styles, and to be perfectly honest I actually really like these rules. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling too fantastic for most of the tournament, but I still had a good time, and it was fun to debate one last time before the insanity of the semester prevented me from doing so.
4. New York City trip: waking up at 5:30 AM, walking across campus in 14 degree F weather, sitting on a bus for three hours, and walking around in 12 degree F weather? Totally worth it. A group of friends and I went to New York the weekend of Mystery Hunt (we missed it, yes... lame, I know) and had an amazing time. We ate lunch at Becco, worked off all the calories from all the pasta we ate by walking to the Met through Central Park, saw only a fraction of the Met (favorite exhibits: Impressionism and contemporary photography), had life-changing chai lattes at Mud (and when I say "life-changing" I mean life-changing - I thought I knew what good chai tasted like, but the chai at Mud is so incredibly good it blew everything from back home out of the water), ate dinner at a little dumpling place, got cupcakes, and then caught the bus back home to Boston. It was a long day, but a fantastic one.
5. Andrew Bird Live!: ANDREW BIRD IS A GENIUS. I'm not even exaggerating! He is so incredibly talented, it's ridiculous. Loney Dear (and no, I did not misspell that!), a Swedish group, opened with a great set, and I definitely think they are much better live than they are in their recordings. Bird's set was fantastic; he played mostly songs from Noble Beast, but threw in "Imitosis" off of Armchair Apocrypha and "Tables and Chairs" off of ... And the Mysterious Production of Eggs (one of my favorite albums of all time). The show was the last Friday of IAP at the Orpheum Theater in Boston. Oddly enough, the Orpheum has seating. I'd never seen a show while sitting down before, and it was kind of strange. The show also got over at about 11 or 11:30 or so, which is the earliest any show I've ever been to has ended. Enough of my blabbering, here are pictures! The first one is Loney Dear, and the rest are Andrew Bird.
There was a review article in The Tech, but I can't say it was a good article. Not only is Loney Dear misspelled (just a little pet peeve of mine), the author clearly didn't do her research (the custom built gramophones are just for this tour, as one example...). Overall, I don't think it did the show, or Andrew Bird, any justice. Though he really did take his boots off and perform in pink socks, and there were so many hipsters there it was a bit like Urban Outfitters and American Apparel decided to have a convention with all their models.
So that was my IAP. When I wasn't doing one of the things listed above, I was hanging out with friends watching movies!
Now, for a video from Nerdist for G4, all about MIT's Mystery Hunt:
(I don't know why he keeps calling it "Puzzle Hunt" because that is definitely not what it's called... Oh well... This is the price of a bit more fame for MIT, I suppose?)
And I just can't resist linking to this article about movie projects involving things like vampires, Elton John, and Jane Austen novels. It's just too fabulous.
Plus, you should reward yourself for reading this much of this post. It was really long. Sorry about that! There was just so much to cover...
A lot of things have gone on since I last did a real update (not my "Ah! Look at this cool site so I can feel like I am actually posting something you'll want to read so I don't lose the meager readership I have because that would be lame! And I really don't want to be as lame as I already am!" posts), including the wonderfulness that is IAP, a couple of fantastic concerts, Pi Beta Phi recruitment (yes, a sorority...), and the first couple of weeks of my second semester here at MIT. Because this is a lot to cover, I'm going to split things up a bit. This is the first installment in a series of posts I'll be making over the next few days that cover what's been going on in my life so you know I'm not dying out here in Massachusetts, and that I can still form coherent (or somewhat coherent) sentences as proof that MIT hasn't completely broken me just yet.
So first thing's first: IAP!
IAP was amazing. I feel like I could have done more with my time, but I also feel like I could have relaxed more. In the end, I think relaxing was the better choice, because it made the start of the semester a little easier. So, here's what I did over IAP:
1. Darkroom photography class: I had blogged about this a little earlier, but that was in the middle of the class. It ended up being a very worthwhile class for me to take. I've had a fair amount of experience with darkrooms in the past, but it was a nice refresher, and I learned about printing with colored filters, which I had never done before. I still have a lot of photos I need to print, but this is one of my favorites that turned out even remotely well and is the product of many hours of frustration and many wasted pieces of photo paper:
2. Retaking 18.01: yeah, that didn't work out so well. I didn't do so well on one of the exams, so I ended up failing it again over IAP. As a result I'm retaking 18.01 again this term. I've accepted that I am just completely terrible at learning math, and it just takes me more time than most people. Oh well. Thank goodness MIT has such wonderful grading policies freshman year.
3. Debate Tournament: NorthAms is a debate tournament that happens every year, the title a shortening of "North Americans." Teams from a number of Canadian colleges that participate in CUSID and American colleges that have APDA teams gather either at an American or Canadian school (it switches every year - this year it was in Amherst, MA at Amherst College) for a debate tournament. The rules are this strange hybrid of CUSID and APDA styles, and to be perfectly honest I actually really like these rules. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling too fantastic for most of the tournament, but I still had a good time, and it was fun to debate one last time before the insanity of the semester prevented me from doing so.
4. New York City trip: waking up at 5:30 AM, walking across campus in 14 degree F weather, sitting on a bus for three hours, and walking around in 12 degree F weather? Totally worth it. A group of friends and I went to New York the weekend of Mystery Hunt (we missed it, yes... lame, I know) and had an amazing time. We ate lunch at Becco, worked off all the calories from all the pasta we ate by walking to the Met through Central Park, saw only a fraction of the Met (favorite exhibits: Impressionism and contemporary photography), had life-changing chai lattes at Mud (and when I say "life-changing" I mean life-changing - I thought I knew what good chai tasted like, but the chai at Mud is so incredibly good it blew everything from back home out of the water), ate dinner at a little dumpling place, got cupcakes, and then caught the bus back home to Boston. It was a long day, but a fantastic one.
5. Andrew Bird Live!: ANDREW BIRD IS A GENIUS. I'm not even exaggerating! He is so incredibly talented, it's ridiculous. Loney Dear (and no, I did not misspell that!), a Swedish group, opened with a great set, and I definitely think they are much better live than they are in their recordings. Bird's set was fantastic; he played mostly songs from Noble Beast, but threw in "Imitosis" off of Armchair Apocrypha and "Tables and Chairs" off of ... And the Mysterious Production of Eggs (one of my favorite albums of all time). The show was the last Friday of IAP at the Orpheum Theater in Boston. Oddly enough, the Orpheum has seating. I'd never seen a show while sitting down before, and it was kind of strange. The show also got over at about 11 or 11:30 or so, which is the earliest any show I've ever been to has ended. Enough of my blabbering, here are pictures! The first one is Loney Dear, and the rest are Andrew Bird.
There was a review article in The Tech, but I can't say it was a good article. Not only is Loney Dear misspelled (just a little pet peeve of mine), the author clearly didn't do her research (the custom built gramophones are just for this tour, as one example...). Overall, I don't think it did the show, or Andrew Bird, any justice. Though he really did take his boots off and perform in pink socks, and there were so many hipsters there it was a bit like Urban Outfitters and American Apparel decided to have a convention with all their models.So that was my IAP. When I wasn't doing one of the things listed above, I was hanging out with friends watching movies!
Now, for a video from Nerdist for G4, all about MIT's Mystery Hunt:
(I don't know why he keeps calling it "Puzzle Hunt" because that is definitely not what it's called... Oh well... This is the price of a bit more fame for MIT, I suppose?)
And I just can't resist linking to this article about movie projects involving things like vampires, Elton John, and Jane Austen novels. It's just too fabulous.
Plus, you should reward yourself for reading this much of this post. It was really long. Sorry about that! There was just so much to cover...
07 January 2009
Culture Shock
Okay, you'll realize in about five seconds why that was the worst pun in a title EVER.
I'm on the Tillamook Fan Club website again!
(Tillamook makes cheese. Get it? Cheese? Culture? *sigh*)
Anyway.
So, turns out they don't have bots posting things; they have robot interns! And these robot interns have a sense of humor! So humorous are they that I am once again on their online buzz page on their website. It also appears that my site was passed around the office or something, judging by the increase in Portland readers in my Sitemeter statistics.
Lost? It's okay. It all started with this, and continues here and here.
Also on the interwebs: my MIT Admissions Guest Blog (courtesy of Snively - thanks!!!).
In other news... It's IAP at MIT! Basically, that means the next month is going to be full of fun awesome-ness (and I think I'm going to spend some time concentrating on expanding my vocabulary...). I'm re-taking 18.01 (don't ask) and I'm also taking a darkroom photography class. The photo class is going well - I'm halfway through it right now. It's a refresher course for me (I started playing around with 35 mm cameras and darkrooms about five and a half years ago, but I haven't been in a darkroom in a while) and it's strange to realize just how much I missed the darkroom. Today we went through the film development process, and it was kind of funny how the smell of developer and fixer triggered so many memories of working in the darkroom at Sheridan High School for hours on end, only emerging to eat lunch. Included in the class fee is darkroom access for the whole month. Essentially, I'm going to be spending a lot of time in there (when I'm not enjoying all the other amazing things going on around campus and Boston).
I'm on the Tillamook Fan Club website again!
(Tillamook makes cheese. Get it? Cheese? Culture? *sigh*)
Anyway.
So, turns out they don't have bots posting things; they have robot interns! And these robot interns have a sense of humor! So humorous are they that I am once again on their online buzz page on their website. It also appears that my site was passed around the office or something, judging by the increase in Portland readers in my Sitemeter statistics.
Lost? It's okay. It all started with this, and continues here and here.
Also on the interwebs: my MIT Admissions Guest Blog (courtesy of Snively - thanks!!!).
In other news... It's IAP at MIT! Basically, that means the next month is going to be full of fun awesome-ness (and I think I'm going to spend some time concentrating on expanding my vocabulary...). I'm re-taking 18.01 (don't ask) and I'm also taking a darkroom photography class. The photo class is going well - I'm halfway through it right now. It's a refresher course for me (I started playing around with 35 mm cameras and darkrooms about five and a half years ago, but I haven't been in a darkroom in a while) and it's strange to realize just how much I missed the darkroom. Today we went through the film development process, and it was kind of funny how the smell of developer and fixer triggered so many memories of working in the darkroom at Sheridan High School for hours on end, only emerging to eat lunch. Included in the class fee is darkroom access for the whole month. Essentially, I'm going to be spending a lot of time in there (when I'm not enjoying all the other amazing things going on around campus and Boston).
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)