Summer lovin’

I think Indiana finally decided to not skip summer! I LAYED OUT today! Does everyone understand how epic that is? I was outside most of the day. I ran, layed out, played cornhole and football with Niko’s familia. Amazing! I heard it got up to 81 degrees! It’s about freaking time! I don’t think I could handle much more cold weather. So let’s hope this time the warm weather sticks, the grass stays green, and the leaves stay on the trees! 🙂 I hope tomorrow is just as nice! I highly recommend spending some time outside if it is. 🙂

Trendy

There are some trends that aren’t good or are just dumb. However there are some that benefit people so what’s wrong with being “trendy” if it is for a good cause? The One Campaign, going “green” and Product Red are all examples of the good kind of trendy. I’ll admit they are all trendy but who cares? If people want to buy shirts that promote being green or whatever, then great for them. As long as they are actually doing something about it. I’ll admit it’s hard to completely transition into recycling everything or making sure all the lights are off, or buying enviromentally friendly products (which are more expensive) but I’m working on it. And with (RED) I support it 100%. I’m not naive, I know that a lot, if not the majority, of the people buying the Red Products are doing it because it’s the new thing to do. But really why does it matter? In a perfect world everyone would donate money to charities, to help children dying everyday in Africa to maybe live a longer, healthier life. But our world is far from perfect. And if it takes buying a shirt or a bag or whatever from the GAP to get people to donate money than I say go for it. Do you think the mother seeing her child suffer from AIDS, or the child who is going to be left an orphan because there parents won’t be around, do you think they care where the money for there medication is coming from? Or what the motives of the doner were? I doubt it. They just see there child being given a chance that they may not have otherwise gotten.  I could probably go on and on in this post but I would probably lose your attention so I won’t. But like I said in a perfect world people would we wouldn’t have to worry about this, people would have compassion. They would not need compensation for there donations, but it’s not a perfect world. And also if by me wearing a shirt that says (2 Weeks) and someone asks what that means, that opens up a chance for me to explain the huge need there is for help in Africa to someone who may not even know.  So I say be trendy, if that’s what it takes, then be as trendy as you want.

It was a really good cloak

If you have ever watched a movie that impacted you so much you keep thinking about it for hours or days than you will probably relate to this post. Yesterday I watched the movie Crash with Niko, Joel and Meghan. I didn’t really know what it was about and Joel was talking about how epic of a movie it is and how we had to watch it. I was a little skeptical that it wasn’t going to be as good as Joel was claiming it to be. To say the least it blew me away. The movie followed the lives of several different people who led completely defferent lives, they were of different races, social classes, different backgrounds. One common thing they shared was that the characters showed weakness and strengths in equal measure. Every person has the potential to be good or evil, to be the hero or the villian. And this movie depicted that amazingly. But what really really got to me in the movie was the intense amount of hatred that so many of the characters had, and how real that is in our society. If you don’t know anything about the movie a major theme in it is racism. And if you know anything about me you know that is something I feel very strongly about. To judge a person soley based on the color of there skin is something that I will never ever understand. Not only to judge a person but to have so much anger and fear built up that it leads to hating someone because of there race just blows me away. This movie was so sad in that aspect yet so unfortunately real.
The movie will really will force you to be brutually honest with yourself. Everyone makes judgements of others based on appearances. I know I do it despite my best efforts not to. Race is not the only thing people make judgements on. You look at two people walking into a room, one- well kept, dressed nicely, hair fixed, the other- baggy, possibly dirty clothes, messy hair. Which one would you go up and talk to? We judge them completely different based on there outward appearance. You have no idea what they are like, what kind of a family life they may have. We base our judgements on people on one event, one meeting is all it takes and we think we have them pegged. Most of us probably don’t even realize we do this but we do.
I feel like I could probably go on for hours but I don’t want to give anything away so I won’t go into any detail because I feel that I might ruin it for someone if I do. But I do highly recommend it. Just know that it is not something that is easy to watch. It brought me to tears multiple times. I don’t cry a lot during movies so that is saying a lot. And I was so overwhelmed when it was over I really couldn’t even talk about it when everyone else was.
So if you are prepared to be wrecked by a movie I suggest you go rent crash. Then please tell me what you think afterwards

Ron Paul

I have never gotten really big into politics. I know that I should, and I try, I really have tried. I just can’t seem to dive deep enough into each candidate and each issue to feel I have fully informed myself enough to make a decision that big. I also find myself second guessing whether my vote really matters. I mean really…one vote? But what if every person felt this way…nobody would vote. If nothing else my vote means that I am taking a stand, it may not determine who for the next four years will be calling the shots in this confused nation of ours, but it does signify having a voice. We take for granted so much, at least we have the ability to put our vote in, to make a difference as to who is elected. So this is why in about an hour I will be casting my vote, hoping that this one vote will help make a change. I know that the candidate I am voting for has a very unlikely chance of ever becoming President, but does that mean I will vote another way? No. I’m not going to let others dictate my vote. So I encourage you to take a stand and go vote today.

Am I ready?

I started college completely unsure as to what I wanted to do when I “grew up.” After many, and I stress many, times changing my mind I have finally decided to go with photography. Which is something I started getting into about my Senior year of highschool. Someone I knew was getting rid of an old Canon SLR and I asked for it and fell in love. I really enjoy taking pictures, trying new things and seeing what happens. I love looking through books and reading about other photographers and how they got to where they are now. So the decision should have been easy right? Well unfortunately it wasn’t and I went through 2 1/2 years of school before I switched to photography. So now I’m like 2 1/2 years behind before I will actually finish school, which sucks but at the same time now I know I’m going to be doing something I love. . . eventually.

My rooommate asked me if I would be interested in being the photographer at her brothers wedding. What? Seriously…I’m only one semester in. It sounds amazing and I would love to do it, but it’s a little overwhelming. They asked me to send them my portfolio…my portfolio? It consists of about 15 pictures. I mean I have taken other stuff obviously but as for an acutal portfolio from my classes…it’s not to large. My camera is a 35mm Canon Rebel… If it was digital that would be a little different. With film you don’t get a lot of mistakes. At least if it was digital they wouldn’t waste money on bad pictures. hmmm. I’m feeling very underqualified for this. But it is next year, and it’s not a for sure thing yet. I’m excited and a little terrified. We will see…maybe I am underestimating myself and I won’t do so bad, if I actually do it that is. I just don’t know if I’m ready to potentially screw up a wedding! Ok so I don’t think I would completely screw it up, but that is a lot of pressure!