casey by destiny

I know this is supposed to be strictly 365 posts, but I didn’t want to add this and then have it be missed later on. So here’s the animation we started last week. I actually finished it within hours of shooting it, with plans of making it twice the length later on with a second shoot, but Casey is rarely in the mood to do these sorts of things after a long day at work, so I decided to make due and finish it with what I had.

Click here to view the video on Flickr.

(Apparently my video was way too cool and Rufus for Youtube, so I can’t post it there due to copyright issues…)

Getting Closer

It’s been a while since my last posting. A lot and not a lot has happened in the last week. Here’s the low down:

• Wrapping up the recording for Palms Presbyterian
• Revving up for a wedding shoot I have this coming weekend
• Sold my G4 tower and monitor (originally $2,000) for $175…all to support the iPhone fund, which is now complete
• Put feelers out on selling my furniture (gave promises for couch and have claimers for entertainment center and desk)
• Purchased 1TB external Hard Drive for super secret project
• Busted my left side rear view mirror driving through the alley behind my office
• Casey’s drum set is finally complete
• Updated my website
• Ran into my 8th Grade History teacher who remembered my first AND last name (absolutely made my day)
• 24 days and counting

9.27.08 – “On the Catwalk” – 94/365

Today I had a day off, finally, and went to visit the site of a wedding I’m shooting next weekend. My assistant, friend, and coworker, Michael, poses begrudgingly. I’m 49% nervous, 51% excited about shooting this wedding. Eeeee!

9.26.08 – “Lost in Lost” – 93/365

Not much to say here. It gets REALLY hard to continue this 365 when I get home after 13 hour work days and have to go to sleep immediately in order to get enough sleep for the next day. This is snapshot of a tasty treat to accompany our Lost viewings. Mmmm….Lost.

9.24.08 – “NOM, NOM, NOM, NOM!!!” – 92/365

This is a healthy pile of chicken wing carcasses compiled by coworker, Justin, on a lunch break feast. Impressive yet slightly nauseating.

9.24.08 – “I’ve Got a Fever” – 91/365

Sci-fi Channel started airing the show Lost from the beginning and I thought I’d jump on a new band wagon and give it a shot. Unfortunately, now I and Casey are completely addicted. SO addicted that we couldn’t possibly wait from one week to the next see what happens next. So we gave up and went to our friendly, neighborhood Best Buy and bought the complete first season. After watching the entire season in two days we decided we also needed to get the second season. A story for another time.

9.23.08 – “Chooooocolate” – 90/365

Today my work brought me to my old high school. Rules have changed, new buildings have been added, and teachers have moved on, but that feeling still remains. I had so many amazingly great and amazingly ungreat memories there. I’m glad I had a chance to go back before I move away forever. Courtney, here, is showing us how delicious melted Andes chocolates are.

9.22.08 – “Comes Again Another Day” – 89/365

Rainy, rainy days have descended upon Florida once again. No hurricane in sight, thank goodness, but stormy nevertheless. Casey and I started on making a fun animation today, hopefully we’ll get it finished soon so we can show off Casey’s secret acting skills. =)

9.21.08 – “Tick” – 88/365

With the move peeking right around the corner and our final days approaching time seems to crawl. I get frustrated easily because I just want to leave already and get my clean slate NOW. I’ve always been a really patient person, but this is testing my limits.

9.20.08 – “Hannah” – 87/365

My last day working for the department I was originally hired went pretty well. I had a client with an adorable dog that ended up pooping EVERYwhere. "Thank goodness they were hard!", the owner exclaimed.

Now it’s mainly roadshoots and studio days for me. I like them, but having to be at work by 5am every morning is a major drag. Sigh.

34 Days and Counting

9.19.08 – “Swingline Lover” – 86/365

Work brought me to yet another middle school. It was overall a good day, with the exception of the nameless, apathetic coworker. I just don’t understand what people think they’ll ever accomplish in their lives with the attitudes they continue to keep. My stapler, however, is always there for me.

More photos from the day are posted here, over here, right here, and here. =)

9.18.08 – “New Voice” – 85/365

I sing in a praise band for a church as my side job. Because we’re moving soon the congregation has requested we make a recording. Tonight we met up at a friend’s recording studio and laid down the skeleton of our favorite tunes, with plans of putting in the vocals later next week. Although my vocal tracks were unnecessary I recorded them anyways to get used to hearing myself in playback. For those of you who have never been a recording studio, it’s a very strange sensation to hear EVERY single nuance of your voice, a very personal thing, amplified and brought to the foreground in such detail.

Unfortunately, I really enjoyed myself and am starting to reconsider music weighing less heavy on the priorities scale of my life. I can’t just ignore the people in my life that tell me to do something with my voice and I CAN’T ignore the pure joy I feel when performing. Ahh, the trials of life.

More photos from the recording can be seen here and here.

9.17.08 – “A Sad Day” – 84/365

This is a true story:

I had a very strange and unlikely dream. I was coming to the end of a work day and decided to go to my favorite Fresh Mex restaurant, Kokopellis, for dinner. Upon arrival we were met with a sign that said CLOSED. I immediately realized this meant they were closed forever and screamed "Why???!! Where will I get my fresh mex???!!". I was very sad and woke up in dark horror.

That morning my boyfriend and I had a hankering for Kokopellis and headed on down the street. We pulled up and I got a strange feeling in my stomach as I saw a large white sign on the door that read "Sorry, We’re Closed. Thanks for your patronage." How. Incredible. Is. That?

Why would I have a dream about a restaurant, that I actually hadn’t gone to in a while, and then see its closure become actualized in real life that same day. :::x files theme plays in background:::

The truth is out there…

*one tear for Kokopellis and two for their queso.

Work, Work, Work

9.16.08 – “Relieving the Boredom” – 83/365

I’ve had two splendid days of work in a row. This is highly unusual and a much needed change (and is generally determined by the people I work with from one day to the next). Today I had a pleasant location change at 5am and went to a private Catholic school about an hour away from the studio.

For those of you who don’t talk to me on a daily basis and hear my horror/work stories, I work for a company that takes yearbook photos. Although I am a photographer, they are up to their eyeballs in them and put me on as cashier during the weekdays. This means I hand thousands of willful teeanagers an index card with an ID barcode and write them a receipt if their parents happen to care enough to buy the pictures.

While the photographers set up I’m usually used as a "model" for testing lighting. This usually results in one of three photos:
1. Big Cheesy Smile
2. Impersonation of Apathetic Teeny-Bopper
3. Obnoxious Facial Expression (which usually mirrors my disdain for how I spend my work days)

Today, however, was fun. Note: that IS a Starburst candy in my mouth, which means we had lovely nuns giving us candy and brownies to sweeten the deal.

Favorite Quotes of the day include:
“Northeast: Cah, cah…” – Christa
“I don’t really know what your meal thing is, but, uh you can just grab another box and fill it with sides.” – Me

Other interesting artifacts seen along the way can be found below:

9.15.08 – “Eager Beaver” – 82/365

Casey finally got his new drums in and is beyond excited. Aside from some sketchy snare drum issues (shell not exactly lining up with expensivo heads purchased specifically FOR the drum) the quality is outstanding. I’ll update with specifics on the set later. I also made a cheesy slideshow for your viewing pleasuring of his child-like enthusiasm upon opening the packages.

9.14.08 – “Belated Birthdayness” – 81/365

Some family were out of town on my birthday so we decided to wait until this weekend to celebrate at my mom’s house. Casey and I drove down and enjoyed home cooked food for once in a long while (chicken cordon bleu and broccoli salad). This pie was made instead of the traditional birthday cake as I am not a big fan of cake to begin with. The candles, so proudly placed by Casey, soon began to melt inside the cherry gooeyness and all that was left after a few minutes (and before the birthday song) were sad, dangly wick stumps. It was delicious, nevertheless, and we took half home to enjoy as a midnight snack. I had a great time and am sad/excited that it was my final Florida birthday. Next stop New Jersey!

More pie goodness can be had below:

Aging

9.13.08 – “Mmmmm” – 80/365

I’ve been making a serires of delicious discovers lately. One of which is Planters Honey Roasted Dry Roasted Peanuts. The other being a REdiscovery, CRACKLIN’ OAT BRAN!!! I used to eat this frequently as a child and finally found a box at my local Publix. Delightful!!

9.12.08 – “Revolutionary What?” – 79/365

My work brought me back to my old middle school today. Walking around my old stomping grounds, remembering specific conversations and memories around every corner, I noticed that nothing had changed except one thing. They were actually allowed to have lockers now.

When I told this my little group of student helpers (who are goofing off in this photo), they immediately were in shock that we weren’t allowed lockers, back packs, had to wear our IDs around our necks at all times, etc. I explained, nonchalantly, that it was only because of Columbine High School. All I got from this was a series of blank stares and ripple of "huh?" down the line of girls. They had NO idea what I was talking about, had never heard of it, and even when I said "school shooting" were kind of confused about the notion of a school shooting in general.

SHOCKED.

Not sure if that’s a good thing (testament to how well we’ve change security measures in our school system), or a bad thing (these kids need to know the possibilites and history of America. This isn’t pop culture history, it’s HISTORY).

I was telling my mother about this when she told me a similarly shocking story. She’s an elementary school librarian who travels frequently. She recently returned from Scotland and was trying to get her fifth graders to get a grasp on its location and size as compared to the U.S. She explained, again nonchalantly, that it belongs to the U.K. which is ruled by the Queen of England who used to run OUR country, the United States. But then we fought for our independence and became our own country.

Again, she was met with a class full of confused kids who had never heard such a story and were in shock, themselves, that such a tale could be possible! They were intrigued and eager to hear more.

I went through the same school system she teaches in, where one Thanksgiving Day play in the fifth grade gave me a firm grasp as to how our country became to be. WHAT HAPPENED? WHAT DO THESE KIDS THINK THEY’RE DOING ON THE 4TH OF JULY????

However, I have now come to realize that my own education of American History, aside from the Revolutionary War, had nothing to do with the public school system. Instead, it was Gone With the Wind, Little Women, Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ran etc that gave me any idea of what went on before I was born. I took one U.S. History course in high school that spent an entire semester explaining how settlers went west for gold (of which produced a strange project I managed to flip completely upside down…video can be viewed here).

I vow to teach my children American history from the earliest age and continue to encourage interest in it for them as long as possible. *sigh*

9.11.08 – “Whitey the Frenchie” – 78/365

Once again, off to the puppy store. Unfortunately, I’ve held this pup before and have since been unable to STOP THINKING ABOUT HIM. This is not only the exact breed I want, colorings and all, but this is THE dog I want. He also happens to run $2,300. Not so much in my price range (not that anything is). He decided it was an opportune time to fight me for my Spoon Bag.

Keeping Up

9.10.08 – “Breeze Maker” – 77/365

Lately I get all in a rush when cleaning or making those stop motion animations that I just have to have a temperature drop in the house. Unfortunately it couldn’t be any lower so we got these handy fans. Life savers.

9.09.08 – “End of Day” – 76/365

Not much to say here. Drop dead tired at the end of the day. This is the view from my end of the couch.

9.08.08 – “Puppy Love” – 75/365

So I had the day off, luckily. I decided to try for a second go-around with stop-motion animation. I desperately needed to clean the house, but really wanted to do something creative, sooo I combined the two. When Casey got home we inevitably went to the mall to visit the puppy store and found these two fat little guys breathing ridiculously hard. There’s just so much to love. The stop motion is made up of about 300 photos and took about five and a half hours to put together including the time to shoot all the photos. I strongly suggest never cleaning in this manner as it is pure torture. All I wanted to do was finish cleaning, but since I was halfway through I couldn’t stop and ruin the whole thing. FUN.

The Birthday Post

So, I originally put out this post without including 73/365 from yesterday. I totally thought I posted it and was completely on my game. I’m still not convinced. Either way, here’s the edit, including the photo from Saturday.

9.7.08 – “Spontaneity” – 74/365
Today was my birthday and I was sitting at home on the computer when I got this incredible itch to do some stop animation. I’ve never done this before and was really excited. So I knew I needed a story and an inanimate object. I happened to have a major hankerin’ for a pickle and thought "well, a pickle is about as lifeless as it gets", so I set up the ole tripod and went at it. This is one of the many stills from that project which you can view here.

9.6.08 – “Hey, I’ve Got My New Shoes On” – 73/365

Last night a huge group of my friends and I went bowling in celebration of my birthday, which isn’t really until tomorrow (the 7th), and had a swinging good time. Afterwards we ate incredibly too much at Denny’s and made the terrible mistake of heading back to campus where we used to entire Fine Arts Building as our personal playing field for serious games of Manhunt and Capture Flag (multiple levels, multiple staircases, elevators). Needless to say after three hours and by 2am we were all ready to puke, but pretty much decided we needed to turn our antics into a weekly league and meet every weekend. It’s going to be great and I hope it actually happens a few times before I move!

I created some animated gifs of the “better” bowling techniques I noticed at the alley and put them in this set for my friends and fellow Flickrites to enjoy.

HAPPY SEPTEMBER!

Catching up on my blogging has become a big goal of mine, but organizing my finances, cross country move, and multiple jobs somehow manages to weigh heavy on the priority scale. I will get better someday I promise.

9.5.08 – 72/365 – “Desparation”

Since I’m in the midst of a huge cross country move (FL to NYC) I’m doing some major purging to reduce the amount of junk we haul up there. Most of it goes to Goodwill or trash, but some is sellable so I’m on a mission to make some cash off it. You can see my desparation, here, selling poly-fil. Sigh.

9.4.08 – 71/365 – “Back to School!”

So it’s fall again and you know what that means. Underclass photos! My days generally start at 5am and end at 5-6pm. It’s definitely tiring and I’m excited to only be working in the studio this weekend.

9.3.08 – 70/365 – “Trashy”

Life is hectic as usual and as this coffee table displays, lots of stuff gets neglected including cleaning up around the apartment. I’m hoping to alleviate this whole situation by the end of the week.

9.2.08 – 69/365 – “Word Machine”

I love my computer so much I take photos of it. Sad.

9.1.08 – 68/365 – “Living Room Unplugged”

Many nights Casey will pick up one of our guitars and start picking away, eventually leading to a late night acoustic jam. Lots of fun for us, probably not so much fun for our neighbors.

Much Labor on Labor Day

Lots of stuff going on in my life at this point and YET I somehow manage to squeeze these photos in. I don’t have one for today yet, that’s a work in a progress, but here are my picks for the last week or so.

8.31.08 – 67/365 – “I-95, I Despise”

So one party and roughly 23 loads of laundry later, Casey and I made our way back up to Jacksonville. This was my view the WHOLE way.

8.30.08 – 66/365 – “Untitled”

Casey’s dad bought a jammin’ new camera and I immediately launched into finding it’s nitty-gritty details and specs. Delicious.

8.29.08 – 65/365 – “Twigs and Berries”

During our second day on holiday we were given the opportunity of babysitting Casey’s niece, Kendall. She’s about 15 months and greeted us at the door in the most adorable striped, two-piece dress. The explanation for this came from Casey’s sister, Shayne, who declared that she wanted her to wear something she thought we’d put on our own kid so we could pretend she was ours for the day and get a gist for THAT whole situation.

We took her to the local mall, browsed a book store, and a puppy store before settling down at Smoothie King to get Kendall her favorite: Twigs and Berries!

8.28.08 – 64/365 – “Oh, Mulder…”

Casey and I left for a mini-vacay to his mother’s before our big move and stopped off at his favorite burger joint, Doubles. Lo and behold, they had an X-Files pinball machine!! I was overcome with joy and immediately started snapping pictures.

I’ve recently become obsessed with show, thanks to Casey. I’d never seen the show but was interested in seeing the movie. He said I had to at least watch the show first, TIVOed it for me, and the rest is history.

8.27.08 – 63/365 – “Badoom, Ching!”

My boyfriend, Casey, has been deep in research for nearly a year now planning a big purchase of a new drumset. He’s had his current one almost ten years and has DEFINITELY out grown it.

Finally, the day came when it ARRIVED! I was greeted after a brief knock at the door by a mountain of UPS boxes blocking my exit (definitely a fire hazard). Casey was bursting at the seams to say the least.

*note: This delivery only included his cymbals, cymbal stands, and drum cases. The actual set is yet to come!

For more delivery fun check out other photos from the fun-filled unpacking!

8.26.08 – 62/365 – “Dinosaur Under the Couch”

I’m in the pre-stages of moving essentially from coast to coast (Florida to NY), so it’s CONSOLIDATION TIME! I’m packing clothes we won’t need for a while, Christmas supplies, and craft stuff (::sniff, sniff…I know:::) to store at my parent’s while we move the important stuff first.

The other huge task at hand is emptying all important info and photos from obsolete computers that are just taking up space at this point. I plan on selling these antiques as soon as I’m done (probably for parts). When I pulled this laptop from under the couch I could barely lift it up it was SOOOO heavy. I was amazed at the difference between it and the one I have now. Amazing.

8.25.08 – 61/365 – “Dogs are A’Barkin'”

Not much to say here. I was pooped at the end of the day and just managed to snap this shot of Casey’s tootsies.

8.24.08 – 60/365 – “Fay Lingers”

Fay had been washed away for the most part, however her flooding lingered for a while especially in the streets, between medians and such. This is a view from my drivers seat at a busy intersection.

8.23.08 – 59/365 – “Stud”

I performed what may be my last classically oriented concert ever on August 23. My professor, Char, puts on a recital near the end of every summer and has done so for 25 years. This year was the 25th and final one as she has decided to retire the concert series. With 1,400 in the audience and news personnel around every corner, I was asked to be a featured performer and do a piece called “Stubernic” with Char and fellow UNF grad (and boyfriend), Casey. The whole concert was emotional to say the least, but ended with a crowd favorite, Rockin’ Ricky Rocket (Char sits and pretends to be playing a drumset while we all do the sounds of each instrument with our voices). As tradition continues, we all dress up in fanciful costumes and colorful getups. Mike here went with my suggestion to wear the lime green bandana around his neck, muffler style, instead of as a do-rag. I think it looks fabulous. You can see other amazing wardrobe choices here.