ugggggggggggggh

it seems the closer i get to actually going to california, the harder the obstacles are to overcome. 

i finished the FAFSA yesterday, and i sent that off to brook's, the school in california that i'm hoping to go to.

however, there is a school in houston that my dad would rather i go to, even though brook's has been around for 60+ years, and this will only be the second year for art institute of houston.

i prayed with my mom today, though, and i decided i know exactly what im going to do.

when the Lord opens doors, no one can close them.

yes.

i am going to continue this path of pursuing the school in california, and if the Lord opens the doors, good for me. if not, then i know He wants me somewhere else, and ill look elsewhere.

bad dreams

i've been having dreams lately. 

lots and lots of weird dreams. 

and i don't know what any of them mean, but every day this week when i've woken up, i told myself, 'dang, that was such a WEIRD dream!'  

anyways. i had another one of those dreams right now. 

except this time it was a BAD dream, and i remembered it when i woke up.

in great detail. 

so here it goes. i hope i don't offend anybody, but this is just how the dream was. i am at this church, out near 1604 and I-35; except the church has the exact same schematics as the last church i used to rent. 

anyways. im just chilling, and lots and lots of people are there. ryan brown, samantha faye, the bell family, jessica rogers, zoe r's little sister aiden (weird), grandpa manz), devon manz, my mom, marisa rogers, marlon guiterrez, and a whole bunch of other people i can't remember.  

anyways, it's getting dark at the church, so i head to the car, but not before i decide to break a window and break into the church, and get caught by greek muslims drinking wine. 

marlon somehow bails me out, and we decide to ride dirt bikes, in the church - with samantha. (marlon and samantha don't know each other, which is weird) afterwards, samantha decides to give me her dirt bike, and so i put it on top of my beetle.  my mom sees me and tells me she doesn't want me to keep it because she's worried the brakes might be bad.

fast forward now, and it's night time. and im in taco cabana, and ryan is the head taco maker or whatever. so i sign language to him across the entire kitchen to make me some chicken fajita tacos with lots of cheese, and marisa decides to join me, and she orders four teas and drinks them herself - without offering me one.  

then the scary part. now, i get out of taco cabana, and it's day time - and the entire bell family is here to pick me up, along with aiden, devon, and grandpa manz, in a 20 passenger version of their gold yukon. anyways, pastor bell is driving, and we're just talking, when suddenly a bicyclist dangerously passes in front of us - and we all start freaking out and laughing. then a runner does the same thing. and then it happens again. and again. by now, pastor bell is weaving through piled up car accidents - at 70mph. 

finally, he has to slam on the brakes - and we're coming to a railroad bridge that is rusty and rotting away, and half of it is gone - you just drive off into the abyss, or whatever it is that is down there, and black, during the day...  

anyways, jessica jumps from under the car and starts running and jumps off the cliff. 

and then we're still sliding, and grandpa manz and aiden decide they're going to jump out of the car. and they land safely.  

suddenly, im in a different part of the dream. in a restaurant, magnolia's pancake haus - but everyone's faces are in stuck in these - WARNING, GRAPHIC.

i don't know why, but now suddenly everyone has some sick and twisted torture device stuck to their body. and that is when i woke up.  

but the scarier part is i fell back asleep. and the dream continued exactly where it left off. and i woke up again - to a dark room. now im scared to go back to sleep tonight - i don't want this dream to continue.

saw V

yes. 

these movies are sick and twisted.

buuut, i do like the moral of the story.

to cherish life, and love it, and be appreciative of it.

yeah, the means to that end isn't the greatest, but i think it gets it's point across just right.

oh.

and yeah.

that's me.

ironing

i ironed today, to help out my mom with some of the clothes, and, also, to learn to iron my own clothing.

she claims express clothing is super hard to iron, well, i wouldn't know what to compare them to, but whatever.

i burned my hand ironing. 

well, the forehand - and it hurts a lot.

im going to miss my mom a lot as it is; but now, ill be missing her for all the little things she does.

ironing, and cooking especially.

jordan commercials

obviously you can tell im a huge jordan fan.

and i was watching some commercials out on youtube, and here are some of the best ones.

well, my three favorite, at least.

i joined a photography contest

at $5 a picture, and i uploaded two pictures. 

these are the two pictures i used.

i hope i win.

the grand prize is a canon EOS 5D Mark II body, with receipt. 

yes.

pray for me.

yeah?

winners are announced october 1.

financial aid

scares me.

big time.

so if you've been there and done that, i wouldn't mind a helping hand. no.

in fact, i kinda wish i could pay a professional to find all this stuff for me.

:/

it makes me want to crawl into a closet, close the door, lock it, swallow the key, and not go to college.

that's how scared i am. 

it's lame.

brooks institute of photography, take three.

i applied yesterday.

and i think i have a good chance at getting in.

i have an interview today around twelve with the director of the school.

im kinda nervous, but i think it'll be just fine.

after i (hopefully) get in, ill see how much financial aid i can get.

hopefully i can get 85% or more of the school paid for. 

maybe that's a farfetched expectation, but nonetheless, it would be nice to get a whole lot of the school paid for. even the entire thing, would be superb. 

i showed the admissions consultant my flickr favorites, and she seemed to really, really like them.

at least she wouldn't stop talking about them, nor stop bringing it up. 

man.

santa barbara is so far!

but look at it!

the school is within walking distance from the pacific ocean.

that means i'll definitely be getting my sunset pictures that i've been wanting for a while now.

january 9, 2009, is the planned start date.

bam! 

no cure for cancer, per FTC

the federal trade committee, a huge government agency, just claimed that eleven 'natural' remedial cures could not cure cancer.

the funny thing is, if the government's hands were in the pockets of these cures, they probably would be total advocates of them.

the sad thing, though, is that there is no money in a cure for cancer.

the government just wants to suck people up of their money.

i wonder what george washington, thomas jefferson, and john adams would think of our government if they saw in its current state of affairs..

county down

contrary to popular belief

megapixels don't matter.

most people are not going to be printing prints that are larger than 11x14, and you can get GREAT looking 11x14s with a 4MP camera.

so why would you want a 10MP camera?

i don't know, but camera manufactures know that megapixels SELL, so they  try to cram more megapixels on the same sized sensor, to make more sales; however, what the consumers don't know is that when that happens, more noise turns out in each picture.

MEGAPIXELS DON'T MATTER.

now on the other hand...

priorities of a liberal

lets save these and these: 
but, you know..

we can let all these 'unborn' babies be brutally murdered:

right. that makes perfect sense. 

how the crap did you get your priorities so messed up?

by no means am i saying let the environment go to waste - no, not at all. 

im just saying, maybe you should look after your own kind with the same passion and energy you put into making sure we don't 'hurt the trees.'

what makes those more important than an innocent baby? 

it really sickens me when i see how screwed up your priorities are.

seriously.

you call yourself "pro-choice"?

i can agree with you that you CHOSE to have sex, that you couldn't control yourself. 

but now, don't be so irresponsible and learn to take action for your CHOICE.

why don't we let the child have a CHOICE? 

what do you think he would CHOOSE? life or death?

how's that for pro-CHOICE? 

 

matt and heather bell

engagement pictures i took of matt and heather today.

i love how they came out, especially the second to last one! 

that one is probably my all-time-favorite-engagement-photo!

photographer's market guide to

building your photography business.

i bought this 'guide' today.

i hope it comes in handy.

and i learn a lot of good things from it.

i have an engagement 'shoot' with matt and heather bell tomorrow.

well, future heather bell.

i spent sometime going over poses today.

i really like a lot of the new stuff i found.

i think its going to be great.

i can't wait.

i just wish i had someone to hold my reflector. :(

new ipod nano

i got my sister priscilla a black ipod nano, the new ones.

i actually got it for her for her birthday, not cause im that cool of a brother.

but she loved it.

and freaked out; it was a surprise.

an expensive one.

but its a dang cool thing, that ipod.

i LOVE the genius playlist feature apple came out with in their new ipods, and also in itunes 8.

i hope that they release a version of it for the older ipods..

tree lighting

so i saw this one guy, jarrett murphy, well, i saw his work, and i saw a shot he had done, so i tried to copy it.

granted, he has thousands of dollars of strobes, and metering equipment, and all that good stuff, i did try.

it is hard autofocusing in the dark.

its impossible, actually.

so all my shots came out like crap.

except this one.

which isn't nearly what i'd had hoped it to be..

but its whatever.

ms. busybody

excuse me ms. busybody.

could you pencil me in when you can?

though we both know that the worst part about it:

is i would be free when you wanted me.

if you wanted me..

nothing but the best

something interesting to note

is that while i was browsing through flickr's interestingness section, i realized that the 'good' and 'great' photos were the ones that had cool post-production.

that without photoshop, elements, aperture, lightroom, etc, that picture would be just another ordinary picture.

i think it kind of saddened me a bit.

oh well.

i guess the in thing is post-production.

yellow

forgot i uploaded this to youtube:

new family

these ads by microsoft are are actually quite hilarious.

not saying i would consider getting a PC anytime soon..

but hey, their ads are pretty dang funny.

notice:

you will become

the people that you associate yourself with.

chill with druggies or alcoholics? guess what - sooner or later you'll become one.

hang out with whores and sluts? it'll catch on.

lunch with the rich and successful? same principle.

and here is my life plan

the art institute of houston.

saturday morning.

im going.

im ready to (hopefully) start in january.

yes.

fafsa, here i come.

houston, get ready.

wedding photographers watch out.

beautiful women? well, be ready, im coming for one of y'all. 

here is my life plan, in a nutshell.

1. get a degree (B.A. or B.F.A.) in photography, then have a better head for a wedding photography business. i sorta have that going already, but i need more clients.

i figure while im in college, even in houston, i can continue that with matt, D&M. we need to get that going though - october 4th - we have a wedding...

2. while making money with my wedding photography business, pursue a hard degree in either business or computer science, to better help me with my wedding photography.

3. start looking for a beautiful lady. well, considering marriage, after i've backpacked europe, gotten some amazing pictures in my portfolio. although i don't want to stop traveling once i'm married. traveling with my wife would be even better.

then travel and make money for the rest of my life.

my blisters

hurt. 

i have a question

what do you call a friendship where only one half seems to care about the other half? 

or where that first half is the only half that makes an effort, and if that first half doesn't try, there won't be any contact or communication for weeks upon a time, till half 2 feels sorry and says something?

crap

im upset.

haha.

this blog wasn't meant to be a place to whine and what not, but im going to do it this one time.

im having a crappy day.

ha.

first, my dad forgot to pay the electricity bill; with my grandfather's funeral a few weeks ago, he just totally forgot. and its ok.

but the house is hot, so that's why im at my neighborhood barnes and nobles..

ouch.

then, i was supposed to play a basketball game today, which i did.

and i lost.

but that wasn't the worst part.

well, the first worst part was that if i had won, he would have come to church with me, and the second part was that i have HUGE blisters on the bottom of my feet, and they're killing me, every step i take.

OUCH.

then, my phone just went bonk on me, and  is screwing up, and is just a white screen.

im really, really contemplating getting an iphone pretty soon.

i found out that i have no contract lock at sprint (my contract expired june 2006? sweeeeeeeeet). but still. my phone!

oh well, maybe its a blessing in disguise, and now i can get the awesome iphone sooner than i had hoped.

any takers on that family plan? ha.

tomorrow, im going to consider trading my 24mm f/2.8 for a 28-70mm f/2.8; i just don't know how it is going to stack up, optically. i hope it is sharp; but then again, my 28 isn't the sharpest lens out there as it is.

oh, yeah.

and then i found out i have a $681 debt still to IBC? what the heck? how come i never knew about this? i just found out today, and i need to pay that.

and then i need to hurry up and go to photography school.

im tired of not being in school.

i want to start in january.

anyways.

im having a crappy day.

make me smile. :)

bill highsmith

i thought i had made it clear that i want NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU.

get out of my life.

im not your child, you're not my father.

get out.

seriously.

i have tried not to be rude, but you don't listen.

GET OUT OF HERE.

don't even bother replying.

dreams

i have been having the weirdest dreams lately..

its so weird.

i had one about marisa, matt, and me all at the same time..

then i just had one of my friend samantha, which was even weirder.

oh well.

dreams mean something.

life

is blah.

i thought i finished that part.

but apparently i can't help but keep coming back to it.

oh well.

i really need to get over it.

alright, her.

anyways.

people picture said i can have the job.

if i can work every sunday.

and i said thanks, but no thanks.

so i applied at lifetouch, at jcpennys, and i think i have a better shot there.

plus, the manager is hot, vs fat and ugly at people picture. 

oh, im so mean.

this 365 days project isn't that bad.

not easy, though.

i forget to take pictures everyday, which isn't a good thing.

and this book project thing.

the picture book.

with questions.

THAT is hard.

man - how hard is it to help a friend out?

pah.

too hard, apparently. 

macbook for sale

i just bought a macbook pro.

couldn't resist this deal.

now im trying to get rid of my macbook.

2.4 ghz, 3 gigs of ram, 160gb hard drive.

$1300.

not a bad deal.

still have the receipt and original box, along with two years of apple care service. 

zoë, and a lot of people.

today was CRAZY.

to help you understand just how crazy, lets just say that is very rare that we get more than a ten top more than once a day.

well, today, we had an eight, ten, and twelve top.

all within thirty  minutes.

oh yeah. did i mention we also had a 47 top?

yeah.

anyways, the 47 top forced us onto a wait early in the morning, and since i was the only host today, i had to sit people, and take down names.

so a lady came in and was like: "a  table for two and a half, for zoë please."

well, since i used to have a best friend with that name, i knew that the e was dotted,

and that the name wasn't spelled 'zoey'.

so while i was writing this out, the lady was like: "omgosh! wow, wow. you put umlaut (ë) at the end! NOONE does that with my name!!"

and she was dang hot.

that was cool.

budget

i need to make a budget every month.

and i need to stop eating out so much.

50% of my income needs to go to savings.

im letting y'all all know that right now.

ugh.

i seriously spent 61% my income this month on photography.

and i need to STOP eating out so much.

365 days/day 1 of 365

apparently all the cool photographers are doing it around world, so what the heck, why not try it? i thought.

i have not read anything official about it, but i guess the point is to take a picture everyday of the year (a specific one, for this project), and post it online, and then at the end of the year, view all 365 pictures, and hopefully view the progress.

i might bore you, and post a photo every day, or i might just post the link to the flickr set every once and while.

not sure.

so im going to start, and here is Day 1:

canned

how do you tell your wife that you just got fired?

book cover

so i need an idea for a book cover.

so far, it is going to be this:

but i wouldn't mind something a little more fancy schmancy...

any ideas?

the picture people

is where i applied at today.

to be a photographer.

pretty much, to steal all their information.

well, i wouldn't say steal, per say.

but to leech off their work, and learn as much as i can about photography, and studio work.

i hear it's all canon, though.

im not excited about having to learn a whole new system.

who knows, though.

maybe canon will woo me over.

UPDATE - nevermind. i compared the canon 5D, 50D, and nikon's d300 and d700, and nikon's gear, in my mind, clearly comes out on top.

but then again.

the gear doesn't matter...

season 6

of one tree hill started last night.

i just got it...

and im watching it.

but what the heck!

what's up with all the coldplay music?!

i love it!

tvshows i enjoy every week, and i can't wait till they start up again, are:

24

chuck

hell's kitchen

heroes

lost

one tree hill

and smallville.

ah. i love the fall.

and i can't wait for winter, and cold. 

and winter photoshoots.

heroes

i just finished volume one.

it was amazing.

it really was.

now on to volume two.

and im super starving.

its after two am.

i want food.

i just witnessed

a convenient store get robbed.

and i was in it.

it was pretty scary, actually.

i don't even live in the ghetto, and this happens.

what the heck?

how?

i thought i was going to die...