Loathing:

• waking up at 6am.  Every work day.  it sucks.
• along with waking up at 6am, I have to try to sleep earlier.  less time to spend with Mike.
  
• my slacking off on cleaning causing friends' allergies to act up.  I'm sorry everyone... I should've cleaned up better.
• always forgetting to take pictures of the parties at my house.  I rarely ever remember to take pics at our parties.  After the night (and morning) is done, I think about what a shame it is that I don't have anything documenting what happened.
• siblings who act like they can step in and do something better.  I'll elaborate on this later.
• suicide.
  

Loving:

• going out to the wine bar and Shokudo with Mary and Mandy & her visiting twin sister.  Maybe Randee.  Should be fun.
• getting my eBay purchase for my photo junks.  I ordered plastic sheets to store negatives and Photo CDs (which have a slot for the index prints, too).  I brought a few things with me to work, so during down time I'll start sorting my negatives.
• leftovers from the party.  Jambalaya is yummy!  I had some for breakfast today.  I also have lots of curry left, so that might be lunch for tomorrow.
• The Dark Knight.  great movie.  it makes me sad to think about it being the last we will see of Heath Ledger, but at the same time... what an end!  superb acting.  They need to keep The Joker locked up in Arkham Asylum for the rest of the Nolan Bros. Batman films... no one could replace Ledger.
  
• buying Queens of the Stone Age items on eBay.  yeah, yeah, I know... lay off the eBay addiction.  Whatever.  I got a B-Sides CD and the CD single with the song "The Fun Machine Took a Shit and Died."  if you want to hear "The Fun Machine..." you can listen to it on the QotSA Official Website.  An audio player pops up and plays it.  I'll share it later, when I get the CD.  Oh yeah, and a t-shirt.
  
• faxing my info to the State of Hawaii.  it's good to get it out of the way and not have to think about it right now.
• designing business cards for myself.  I'm still debating on whether I want to do this or not because MOO makes business cards using my Flickr photos.  I want to make them, but at the same time, I don't exactly NEED it.. do I?
• the fact that it's almost lunch time.  It's taken me a while to finish this entry... working and browsing while trying to finish it.

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How do you travel to and from work - personal vehicle, bus, subway/train, pedal power? What does it cost you per week in gas or fares?
Submitted by Jan.

I drive to work Monday through Friday.  I'll make myself cry if I try to figure out how much gas it takes.  I drive about ten miles one way, but 1-3 times a week, I go to the gym with my mom... and that requires picking her up, going to the gym, taking her home, then going home.  Then, Tuesday nights I have community band practice, which adds on another 10 miles total for the day.

if I go out, I like to drive because I get car sick pretty easily and driving prevents that.  I'm not gonna think about the gas involved.

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I missed Tuesday again.  oh well, here goes.

だいきらい

• being told, "We're going to switch the work hours from 8am-4:30pm to 7am-3:30pm."  Sure, that makes sense since the construction world normally starts at 7am, if not 6am... but still, that means waking up earlier, which means going to sleep earlier, which means less time spent with Mike.
• having DVDs that can't be "backed up".  You know what I mean.
• not being able to turn down curry.  If there is curry in the pot, I will eat some.  and I'll probably end up eating more.  and more.  it tastes too good to pass up, but it's not good for wanting to keep the weight down.
• fleas.  and other biting insects.  I think we have fleas, and the PetMeds haven't come in yet.

だいすき

• being one step closer to having a secure job.  maybe.  do I want to go from one boring job to another?
• going to the movies with Mike.  We went with Nick and his sister Emily to see Hellboy II: The Golden Army.  It was a great movie.  Beautiful, like all del Toro films.
• lunch time.  I can get out of the office for a break!
• cheese.  because it tastes so good... especially on pizza for lunch.
  
• my dad's approval to play a different instrument for gagaku.  My main instrument is the shō (mouth pipe organ), and he usually makes me play that instrument.  Now, I think there are enough shō players strong enough that they don't need my help.  So now, I get to play ryūteki (bamboo "dragon" flute) and komabue (Korean flute).
• new toys to tinker with.  Nick let me borrow his Sony Cybershot DSC-F828.  Digital Still Camera.  Not really meant for action shots, but it will be fun to toy with, especially for macro shots.
• preparing to organize my photos and negatives.  I bought some plastic sheets to store my negatives and also CDs with digital photos.  It might take a while, but I really need to do it.  I gotta take some time to look over old photos, even ones from when I was a kid.
• did I mention going to see Hellboy?  Yeah, I liked it.
• having parties at our house.  I don't like having to clean up for it, but I like the end result of the cleaning and hanging out with friends.
  

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How do you choose your Vox neighbors and friends?
Submitted by gcgal.

A chunk of my neighbors are friends I have in real life.  most others, I either stole them from Maile, or they write well and are fun to read.

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July is national ice cream month! What's your favorite flavor?
Submitted by LittleWiseOne.

Dave's Hawaiian Gourmet Ice Cream: Green Tea ice cream.  no substitutions allowed (unless it's green tea ice cream from Japan, or green tea CHOCOLATE from Japan... damn it, now I want to go to Kyoto for some matcha chocolate...)

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If you could take a class right now and learn anything in the world, what class would you take?

There are too many classes I would want to take....

1. Photography (digital and analog, to learn darkroom stuff)
2. Drawing
3. Painting
4. Digital Art
5. German
6. Business classes (enough to learn basics of running my own business)
7. Understanding Christianity (because I'm never quite clear on it)

That's from glancing at the LCC Course Descriptions.

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What do you think is good blog etiquette and what do you want from your readers?
Submitted by April.

Blog etiquette?  there's blog etiquette?

Personally, I think if you write something online, and leave it open to the public, you are accepting the fact that someone could write ANYTHING in response to your post.  If you don't want that to happen, keep it in your neighborhood or friends only.  and if those in your neighborhood post something you find offensive, delete it. 

I think most people, in general, will keep their extremely rude comments to themselves.  if not, just delete their comments :)

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OK, so I got a bit of feedback from people about my photo submission dilemma.  It only further reinforces my belief that you can't choose which photo is "Best" because everyone chose different photos for different reasons.

I changed my photo submission for the "On Stage" category from the burlesque photo to this one:

magnumcarnage01

I didn't realize this wasn't on my choices on the post where I shared a bunch of photos, but this has always been one of my all-time favorite photos from my band photography.  This is something you can't always plan to take... it just happens.  I captured it by experimenting with using just the lighting from the stage, rather than using a flash.  From this photo, I started experimenting more, and then learned to experiment with delayed flash (which helps with the action shots like this). 

I'm now compelled to write a photo essay for JPGMag.  I'm going to focus on how it's difficult to choose which photos to submit to contests because what an individual thinks is great may not necessarily mean others will think the same.  What one considers to be art all depends on the taste of that person.

I browse the "On Stage" submissions, and some of the photos people submit look completely staged, and sometimes they explain that it is staged.  I didn't think that was the point of the contest.

From the JPGMag contest description:

We want to see your photographs that capture performers On Stage. Whether music, dance, comedy, theater, poetry, or magic, show us the photographs that capture performers in their element. Your subject's stage might be bathed in spotlights, or it could be a low-light set for a street performer. Whether the audience buys a ticket or just wanders by, show us performers at work.

I guess performers at work could mean studio shots, since that could be their element... but to me, it means "catch them in the act."  right?

But anyway... yeah, I'm going to work on writing a photo essay.  I'll probably need some feedback on it when I finish it.

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Queens of the Stone Age has become one of my all-time favorite bands.  TOOL, A Perfect Circle, LiVE, Queen, and QotSA.  Live was not on my list for a while, but after getting to see them perform at Bayfest, it reminded me of why I loved them so much.

Since people tend to share music on here, I'm going to share some QotSA with you all.

"Better Living Through Chemistry" is off of their second album, Rated R (2000).  QotSA tends to make one long, anthem-like song each album, and this is one of them.

05 Better Living Through Chemistry

Queens Of The Stone Age

I went looking on YouTube for some video footage... this is a great live version of the song:

Queens Of The Stone Age - Better Living Through Chemistry

Yay, I shared some music.

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I'm signed up on JPGMag.com, and they have contests for all members each quarter.  They have three different categories and you submit a photo from your bunch, have other members of JPGMag vote on the photos, and the ones who get the most votes will get printed in JPG Magazine.

This quarter, one of the contests is "On Stage".  I have TONS of on stage photos (band photography is my favorite right after scenic photography), but I have no clue which to choose from... too many.  and I don't know whether what I think is good is what others will think is good, too?  It's so hard to say.  Art is personal.  you like what you like, regardless of what others think.  y'know?

The one I have submitted right now, that has earned 4 votes (one of which is ME), is this:

Violetta Beretta

So... if anyone has some free time to browse my photos, I would really appreciate it.  I'm trying to narrow down my choices here:

s1atomic03

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