Unevents and Stuff

Blog titles are becoming harder to come up with.

Essentially, not much happened today. Yearbook I did more folks' dirty work, and my art teacher didn't feel like teaching so she excused us (there was an assembly, so it's okay, we just ended up going to it twice, or a lot of people probably sluffed). In third period we didn't have time for much because the assembly ended really late, and in fourth period my math teacher gave us a catch up period because the assembly threw off her schedule.

The assembly itself was pretty cool. It was the homecoming assembly to introduce nominees for King and Queen, and they really didn't do much with that. There was actually a lot more with inducting former graduates into our hall of fame (called the Pay Dirt Club... Miners, get it? Probably not.) and more with the Centennial. They introduced us to the guy who wrote our school hymn, who also happens to be the oldest living former teacher of Bingham at 94 years of age. He was a really awesome guy. He started by talking about how they needed a new music teacher at Bingham because the former teacher kept falling asleep and finally some of his students set the piano on fire, and after a couple of weeks of teaching, the principal gave him some lyrics and told him to write a school hymn. And he did a great job. It's a beautiful song. He then proceeded to play a couple different renditions on the piano and marimba, and then played a bit more on the marimba just to show off. It was entertaining to see this really old guy jumping around on stage and playing marimba like a famous 20 year old showman. It was a feel good thing, and the students loved it. Good job, Bingham.

At work, it was just myself and my boss. She asked me about what Maria said the other day about Dennis and me dating, and whether it was true. I told her no, because it's not, but she could tell there was more to the story. I would like to date Dennis, and I think he'd like to date me. There's just the conflict of being co-workers. My boss said she was fine with it as long as we kept it out of the workplace, but I don't know. I'm really debating right now between what I personally want and what everybody says. It seems to be a taboo to date co-workers, and I imagine that's not without reason. Not to mention that he actually has to ask me out before I can really consider anything.

x.x That's really what's been on my mind all day. That, and this song.

Monday

Just a quickie today, because it's late and I really should be going to bed. In fact, I want to, but I also really want to blog, so... e.e

The day started off pretty well. I actually had my English homework done, which makes any day good. I'm also starting to get more assignments in Yearbook as things get rolling- just Photoshop dirty work, really (Rachel, can you get rid of that? Rachel, can you do this?), but it's something that I enjoy, and it's mindless enough that I can keep to myself and think about stuff without people getting after me for not doing anything. Plus, I'm helping out. That's always good, too.

Seminary was, as always, a good lesson. I have a great teacher this year, and he tries really, really hard to give us a good lesson. And they are good lessons. I come out of every one with a spiritual epiphany. Unfortunately, my class isn't so good. They never participate or do what they should, so I feel like I'm the only person pulling a big load of dead weight. I feel bad for the teacher.

History was also fun. I have a great teacher there, too. He always has video clips or interesting little ways to explain things. We have an assignment over the next few class periods to rewrite the Declaration of Independence in an alternative voice that's easier to interpret (modern, or an example he gave was valley girl: "Like, sometimes you totally have to break off from your friends and, like, form you own group...") so that looks like a lot of fun.

After school, work was pretty good. Package of the Day was a parcel of two shirts that a woman was returning to QVC. She had one bag with the two shirts in it, but she had two different labels, so she brought them both in attached to the package. Normally I'll ask, "Which one is the new label they gave you?" and customers will say this or that, and we'll cross out the old label so drivers and whatnot don't get confused. But this time she was like, "Both." Confused, I ran out to Maria, our driver, who happened to be there, and she said to pick one or the other. With a normal label this would cause a fuss because we bill by weight and dimensions, and each of the labels were filled out for a package half of what she had there. But with a prepaid label, we figure it probably doesn't matter, because they'll just get charged for what the package is regardless of what the label says anyway.

Maybe a little too technical to be followed easily, but I thought it was interesting.

After work, my bosses decided that they would have an "Employee Appreciation Night," where they took the employees (i.e. their family, Dennis, and myself) out to dinner. I've felt pretty awkward about the whole thing all weekend, because I feel like it's a weird thing to do. I appreciate it and I know they're just trying to be really nice employers, but it still felt strange. I think they could tell I felt a little awkward, too. Anyone who knows me in real life (at least, well) knows that I'm something of a chatterbox. You can probably even tell from this blog. But I was pretty quiet all the way there, and for the early portion of the meal, too. Particularly while I was having straw papers shot at me (by my boss, surprise surprise!). Just kidding... I mean, that really happened, but I know it was all in good humor. Mainly, I'm just glad I was sitting next to Dennis the whole time. It's strange, but he's already seemed to have caught on the vibe of my personality. He always notices when something's wrong, and even though I always tell him I'm fine, I've come to appreciate his friendly little, "You alright there, homeslice?" It would feel really weird to be there just surrounded by their family, and I'd probably get claustrophobic. But Dennis is an awesome guy, so I didn't mind being by him. After a while, I started to get more comfortable, and by the end I think I was my normal, chatty self. I still don't want to do it again, though. It was nice, and I appreciated it, but... no.

Anywho, that's my day. After I got back from dinner I went straight to work on my short story for a contest which is due on Wednesday (actually, it has to be postmarked by Wednesday, which is where it comes in handy that I can postmark my own mail. :D). It's really short for even a short story, but I got the gist of what I wanted in there. It's very flowery, ornate language, whereas I tend to prefer strong, vivid language, but I wanted to experiment with style and I felt this was a good concept to do it with. Perhaps tomorrow I'll post the whole thing. For now, I just need to do a bit of revising and whatnot. And catching up on schoolwork. I must be the worst procrastinator in the world.

ANYWAY! I said this would be a quickie. I was wrong. Though in all honesty, this only took about 15-20 minutes to write. :D

Oh My.

No work today. My boss called and said it was so slow I didn't even need to bother. So instead I went over to Gardener Village, just for the sake of going somewhere. It was nice just walking around. I got a few weird looks, mainly because I'm a teenage girl all alone whereas everyone else seems to be the mother of three young children, but oh well. It made me feel nice and relaxed. Until I went into this one shop that had some funny incense going on. That made me feel weird and I wanted to go home after that.

I took a nap, submitted some stuff to DA I've been meaning to for a while, then went to practice with a pianist in my ward. I have to sing in church tomorrow. I'm not making a big deal out of it, though. That sort of thing doesn't make me nervous anymore. I didn't even start practicing until a few days ago.

Now I've just been doing some other things. That poem I posted a few entries back- I made it all pretty in Photoshop and I'm about to submit it to DA too. I'm in a strange, romantic mood. Know why?

I think I'm in love. Again. Oh my. *sigh*

Stranger than Fiction

Someone once said to me concerning one of my photographs, "That is so Photoshopped!" When in fact, it is one of my least edited images. This photo (seen above) depicts one of the little natural wonders of our world. Sometimes, when a tree is just waking up from winter, the sap in the top of the tree enlivens itself much more slowly than the sap in the bottom of the tree- consider, for example, when you come inside from cold outdoors and warm up. Your extremities will be the last to get cozy. It's the same with trees. Except where we work from the center out, they work from the bottom up. The result of this re-awakening process was a tree that was very alive on the bottom half and completely dead on the top half.

I become irked when people accuse my photography of being overly photoshopped. It's true that I do edit my pictures to make them look good, but I have an ethical code when it comes to editing pictures. I would never fabricate something completely unreal and then call it a photo. If I add anything more than a frame to the picture, it's no longer a photograph. It's a photomanipulation. I've also come across similar accusations with my picture Reaching. "So, did you just put that star in in photoshop, or what?" Honestly, people. It's easier to just make the star myself and tape it to the wall. Why on earth would I go to the trouble of finding some picture of a badly cut out star and then cutting it out and photoshop, putting it in the picture, and editing it to match?

Stupid.

Anyway. Just a thought that came to mind. You'll hear again from me later.

(I don't mean to write twice a day, I've just had an abundance of time this weekend. That will change once school starts again on Monday.)

And just because Alex made it look fun-

Work and Customization ADD

You'll probably notice my blog template change. A lot. Like now, for instance. That's because I have customization attention deficit disorder, meaning that I won't stay happy with one for long. Mainly because I DO NOT like the layouts provided here, and I've been scouring all over the internet to find one I'll be satisfied with, and that's just not working.

So yeah. My first blog was over at LiveJournal, and then my second one was at Vox. So far, Vox's layouts kick arse. In fact, I'd probably be using that blog if I had more friends. But there I only had one, whereas here I already have two. So this be the winner. Seriously though, I'll probably be scouring the web for weeks looking for some way to personalize this thing. I can't stand its current boringness.

So before work today I did some stock photos. You know, those photos I was talking about a couple entries back that people take and make art with? Yeah. That. The problem is, my camera malfunctioned three or four times. The shutter curtain got stuck in between open and closed, and I had to open it up and manually move it to one position or the other (whichever one would stick) and then try to take a picture, which would get it back to normal. It was just a little scary, because I thought it was broken when I got the "-Err-" message on the display. If I hadn't been so desperate for it to not break, I wouldn't have dared go in to try and figure out how to fix it myself. I guess I was just in a frenzy to not break anything else.

I told Dennis today that if I could go a week without breaking something relating to my camera, I would be a happy person. Rewind the past couple of weeks, I've broken my telephoto lens, my dad's telephoto lens, my tripod, and now my camera shutter is sticking. Egh.

Work today was... well, work. Things kind of got uncomfortable when our driver arrived for her pick up. It started out with my boss telling us that Dennis, the other employee, is a blackbelt. According to him, he did karate for like, twelve years, taught it for four (to "Little Ninjas". LOL!). Go figure. Our driver (Maria) made a good point, though. He's a calm guy, doesn't really get angry or frustrated, and is always pleasant to be around. Maybe that's some martial arts training in there somewhere. They do mental conditioning too, don't they?

Anyway, some personal stuff came out about one of the other (former) employees. I won't write it here, because it's probably not something that he'd want on public display, but my boss didn't know about it and it kind of upset her. Maria just thought it was hilarious. Then she started accusing me and Dennis of getting together in the future (*shiftyeyes*), and told my boss she'd have to fire one of us. Thanks, Maria.

Nah. Just kidding. Maria's really an awesome person, all of us consider her our favorite driver, and she likes coming to our store to hang out with us the most. I just felt like she was treating some of the stuff going on today a bit lightly, and I felt bad for our boss for having to find out that way.

Package of the Day: Ehm. I think I had something better, but I forgot what it was. For now, we'll go with some tea that was being returned to the tea company. XD We get a lot of returns, but tea is definitely one of the wierder ones.

I've decided to call Dennis Sunshine Megatron when I remember. You see, this guy my sister was dating a while back once met a man named Sunshine Megatron. Naturally, he had to ask about the name. As it turned out, the name was the result of a very, very bad bet. I told that story to Dennis, and he thought it was awesome. He said he wanted that name. So now I'm calling him Sunshine.

After work I went to the grocery store, which was a little awkward. First of all, I usually go with my mom, but she's out of town, so I had to go alone. Second of all, I was still in my UPS uniform, so I probably looked a little wierd. It's not an ugly or strange uniform, it's just... a uniform.

I ramble when I don't have anything interesting to talk about. I'm sorry.... oh well.

EDIT: I've discovered a few ways of somewhat customizing my blog. I am satisfied. For now...

A Poem and a Snippet on People

This is a poem I wrote last year. Inspired by fridgecrisis over at fcwhiteblues, I've decided to post it here. It's very sentimental to me because it started out talking about long walks in autumn I used to take with Rachael and Lauren. The peace and beauty of nature (even in the suburbs) gets to me, and we've had some really great, deep discussions on those walks. But then it evolved to something more romantic, and some dreamy guy I'll probably never meet decided to take me on an autumn walk instead. So essentially, this is the best love story I will ever write.

We don't mind the summer ending
Because that brings the Fall-
Like the Fall of Adam,
Trees give into temptation,
As Summer gives his parting kiss
To lovely lady Winter.

The sky is dark and stormy;
The trees, yellow and red,
Are colors on a page.
The leaves on the ground are
Crisp
Browning
Like an old piece of paper.

Their death smells like soil and earth
And reminds me of a mountain.
The air is chilly
Sounds like fluttering pages.
Another gust of wind catches my skirt
And the bells on my favorite scarf sing,
My own tiny wind chimes.

You pick up leaves in bunches
As if they were precious gifts
Hug them
Smell them
Kiss them like a shy new lover
Then they fly
Tiny birds on the wind
Drunk on freedom.
Tumbling down
They catch your hair
Whisper tiny obscenities
You smile and brush them away.

We swing on lamp posts,
Play on rusted swing sets,
Then you walk me home.
The sidewalk looks so cold
The trees are jagged coat racks.
And like the Summer dying
Parting from lady Winter
You say goodbye with a kiss.

Next I'd like to just comment on something I read in Alyce's blog. She said that she wanted to experiment more with smiling at strangers to gauge their reactions. My history teacher is also the Sociology teacher, and just from what few hints I've had, I'd be very interested in taking that class. There were some project posters on the table behind my seat the other day so I took a moment to look at them before the bell rang. As it turned out, they were crazy social experiments that people had performed.

Number one was titled, "How will people react when I turn on my iPod and sing along loudly and off key?" It then described the procedure (self-explanatory, then at the end she made sure people knew it was an experiment XD), and showed a graph of the results. Most people just gave her wierd looks or laughed, but some pointed, some got angry, and some told her to shut up. Interesting, no? Sounds fun to me.

The other one was measuring responses when she and her friends went up to strangers and initiated conversations, then ended them with an abrupt "I love you". Most people just got really awkward about it, some responded with "I love you too," some laughed, and some walked away. Also intriguing. I think it would be fun to try.

Anywho. I'll probably write again tonight, since who knows what shinannigans (?) might be coming through our store, but it's no guarantee.

I have followers now! Woo! *cackle*

Package of the Day and Stuff

I'll admit right now that I don't have much to say for school today. It came, it went, meh. Mainly, I need to worry about falling behind in my classes. I'll have to play some catch up this weekend. Blegh. x.x

Work is when things got interesting today. Sometime within the first hour of my getting there, I noticed some sort of a plastic brownish-gold sword missing its crosspiece that was hanging out on one of the counters in the back. I asked what it was. Dennis said some kid left it by the copy machines.

So. Much. Fun.

I officially titled it a gladius (roman short sword, anyone?) because that's what it looked like to me. So the whole day we were all gladius-ing each other. I gladius-ed more people than anyone else. We're talking co-workers, of course. I would never gladius a customer.

We also had one of our more interesting regulars come in today. I don't really know why she stays at home all day (some sort of sickness, I think?) but she shops on QVC all the time, and then every two weeks or so she comes into our store with bag- and cart-fulls of QVC returns! It's, erm, really weird. Nothing against her, of course, because she's actually a very nice lady and is always very friendly whenever she comes in. But it's definitely one of the stranger things I've seen.

The Package of the Day award, however, officially goes to two drop off packages that came in from non-regulars. When re-using a UPS box, you're supposed to cover up old labels and stickers so we know which one has the correct information and whatnot. Most people peel them off or cover them with marker. These guys spray painted over them. Not only that, they used brown spray paint that matched the box nearly perfect. It was strange. And funny. It made me smile.

You know, you think UPS and automatically you think, "Oh, that's a neat job. I'll bet they're always really busy. I'll bet they're always doing a lot of really official stuff."

Well, try to see things from our perspective. Try to imagine the crazy stuff we get coming through there- because believe me, we do get it.

PS: Remember how the ink was lifting off the pictures I wanted to get printed? The Xerox repair guy came yesterday when I had the day off. It turns out it had nothing to do with too much ink as we thought- actually, the paper was coming out of the machine too fast for how heavy it was and the ink wasn't setting before it came out. Therefore, it lifted.

Stocking Explained

http://dezzan.deviantart.com/art/Cinderella-arrive-91852915

http://lady-oswald.deviantart.com/art/Today-81345607

http://crash-drummer.deviantart.com/art/Gather-the-rythm-77891258

http://frozenstarro.deviantart.com/art/Realm-of-Darkness-79383840

http://greenfeed.deviantart.com/art/two-sisters-70149126

http://karemelancholia.deviantart.com/art/Dear-Old-Skibbereen-69196003

http://yuudei.deviantart.com/art/I-can-reach-it-68100537

http://autonoe.deviantart.com/art/Little-Bo-Peep-66770449

http://dandelion-lion.deviantart.com/art/Second-Star-66400190

http://atreja.deviantart.com/art/and-she-danced-in-fall-63945900

http://bc-photography.deviantart.com/art/A-foggy-day-62544581

http://oloferla.deviantart.com/art/Crossroad-57883253

http://luclamxu.deviantart.com/art/I-don-t-regret-49949326

http://azurylipfe.deviantart.com/art/Alone-in-the-Dark-38705783

http://royank.deviantart.com/art/Breaking-Apart-the-Water-37344719

http://greenfeed.deviantart.com/art/green-birds-from-the-paradise-35224260

Heh. Stocking. Not stalking. Confused?

In the world of digital art, artists use royalty free base images to create their artwork. These images are called stock art/photography. I've been a stock artist on DeviantART since October 2005, and I have to say, it has been a wonderfully entertaining and rewarding experience. Not only have I learned more, seen some great art, and gotten my own art more out there, but I've also been given the priceless gift of seeing myself immortalized in the great work of some very talented people. This has improved my self esteem, and connected me to all sorts of people and artists that I might have never gotten to know otherwise.

So in honor of those artists who have used my pictures in their work, here are some pictures for you to see (along with links to originals).

New Blog / Printing Problems

So.

I've been keeping a journal for years. I've even filled up a few. Figuring out what to write shouldn't be a problem for me after all of that practice. Figuring out WHEN to write and what NOT to write will be my problem. I don't want to say too much, since blogs are open to the world wide web, but at the same time, the entire reason I want one in the first place is because I feel like I need somewhere to jot down my thoughts and feelings. Mostly about school and work, and mostly about menial little things that mean nothing in the long run, but it's still healthy, so I'm going for it.

To start off, I work at the UPS Store. It's an independently owned business run by a nice couple and staffed in part by their kids, and the other half of the staff is myself and one other fellow. Today I brought in some files to be printed for a teacher at school. Some sort of buffalo pictures as a metaphor for the football team (teacher = coach, got it?). So I volunteered our store, because I figured our nice takes-five-minutes-to-warm-up four process color machine would be just as high quality as Walgreens or somewhere, and probably cheaper. And he agreed. I took the files into work, and... apparently, there's so much black in the pictures that the toner is coming back off of the page and I end up with this weird looking print that's missing half its black ink.

The technical explanation- black ink is essentially toner, this powder stuff that sticks to the page by being charged with static electricity. As far as I understand it. But when you get too much on the page, everything backlashes and instead of sticking, it all falls apart. One of the owners of the store has been working in printing for years and years. He spent nearly two hours dabbling with the color information in Photoshop trying to get it to work- advanced stuff, like setting limits on the amount of ink allowed to go on the page, and whatnot- and we still couldn't get a decent looking print.

So now the solution will be A) we just take the stupid files to Walgreens, or B) my boss volunteered the equipment at his other job, the printing place, to get this done right since our machines at the store can't seem to handle it.

Not sure which one it will be, but I do know it's pretty much out of my hands at this point.