drumcorps

July 4th Drumcorps Fever

Aaron reported that while I was at work today, Paul from my senior corps called and wanted to know if I could give him a ride to the parade tomorrow morning. I had been going to double-check the timeframe, anyway, so I looked at the Lakeshoremen schedule to see when the parade started and when the brass line was meeting to warm up.

OMG. I have to leave the house at 6:15am.

Arrive at Paul’s house at 7:30am; arrive at the carpool location at 7:45am, warm up at 8am, parade starts at 9am. Lunch at Russ and Barb’s house (the aforementioned carpool location) after the parade… and the party will continue into the evening and night, as those of us from faraway lands (Toledo and northern-mid-Michigan) prepare to stay the night at the Braman household.

For Sunday morning’s parade begins at sunrise.

Well, OK, sunrise is at 6:03am (according to the Weather Channel) and warmups start at 6:30am, so I guess it’s not really at sunrise. We’ll have to be up and ready to head off to the parade staging area in Plymouth before that, though. Of course, this is all assuming that it doesn’t rain on our parade—literally.

I think it might be different if the Toledo Glassmen had a senior corps being funded out of their organization; then I could do parades in, say, Maumee or Toledo or Perrysburg or BG, or even Lima or Wauseon wouldn’t be horrible. I enjoy being in the corps and marching again, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that I don’t enjoy trading off for the only potential quality time I have with my husband in order to do it.

Maybe once we field a show and the returns feel more “worth it,” it’ll even out. Maybe fielding a show will push me over the edge and make me not want to do it anymore—after all, most “real” DCA (Drum Corps Associates; senior corps) shows are in New England. That’s a bit of a haul for everybody, not just Yours Truly.

Anywho, I’m going to go play some Civ III and wait for Paul to return my confirmation I’m-giving-you-a-ride call. —Er, check that. Just got a 30-second call from Paul. I guess he’s going to leave his wife the car so she can attend the post-parade party for a while, too. I wonder if that means he’ll a.) be going home with his wife, or b.) be staying the night at the Bramans’ with us out-of-towners. I guess we’ll see…

I’m still gonna go play some Civ III, though. 😛

randomness

Same Old Shit

Again, not much to report. Finished looking up addresses at work and began changing them and printing out new envelopes for some of the more vital stuff (like titles and deeds and such). Not quite as tedious. Came home, ate dinner, watched the news, took a nap. Bought a magazine subscription from a black girl collecting points toward a scholarship. Talked to Beth over IM. Downloaded a pop-up blocker. Posted to LJ. That’s my day, pathetic though it may be.

I think I’m going to start devoting one evening a week to photographing outdoors. I figure, maybe come home, hang with Aaron until he goes to work, eat a quick dinner, don’t watch the news, and go out to one of the metroparks—maybe Wildwood or Swan Creek or even Oak Openings—for some evening photography. Burn off at least one full roll of film. Bring all the lenses I can, or go with a project in mind. Maybe make a list: landscapes, reflections, panning with rollerbladers and cyclists, close-ups, patterns, structures. Maybe go black-and-white one week, color another, and splurge on infrared another. (Oak Openings in infrared would be soooo cool with all the trees and foliage around the lake there.)

It seems that I now have seasonal hobbies. Photography in the summer, gardening in the spring, candles in the winter. Or maybe it’s just per my whims, rather than per the seasons. That’s probably closer to the truth.

Sorry that this LJ thing has become so… unfocused. For a while, I was being all introspective and philosophical with my entries, especially when I was just putting entries directly on my site, before I went to LJ; but now it’s really become more of a “this is what I did today” thing. Not that my friends from faraway don’t want to know what I’m up to, but… it just seems so… normal. I mean, if you look at LiveJournal entries, 90% of the LJs out there (not blogs in general: LiveJournals specifically) are about random daily crap. That’s not what I want to read if I browse to a stranger’s journal; I want to read about their thoughts and their philosophies and their weirdnesses. Of course, I’m like that. ::smirk::

I think that’s all I’ve got for today.

randomness

Pretty boring day

Not much to report. After staying up late last night to submit my photos, I’m crashing pretty hard right now.

Spent most of the day at work researching missing or incorrect addresses on returned mail. I’m wagering that’s what I’ll be doing for most of tomorrow, too. Sometimes it’s hard to be a conscientious worker when your given task sucks away your soul so much. I guess I’d rather do that, though, than answer phone calls—which I’ve heard I’m slated to do soon. Goodness, no. It’s not that I don’t want to talk to people; I’ve gotten better with that. It’s that I don’t even know half of what I should know to effectively assist banking centers (and the occasional random client). Ah, well. I know I’ve gotta start sometime.

Downloaded some more early-season drum corps mp3’s this evening. One of them is a hack of a .wma file you can purchase from the DCI.org website—and in the middle of the show, during some applause, a voice comes in and says, “Support your local drum corps, you cheap bastard.” I’m guessing the person who “hacked” it from wma to mp3 thought that would be funny. I think it’s just gonna spell a few minutes of me editing some mid-show applause short.

Sorry today’s been kind of boring. I just wanted to be sure to post something, now that I’ve kind of gotten in the habit.

For now, though, I’m really sleepy and I still have to shower and take some Tylenol to prevent the impending onset of overnight girlie cramps that will keep me awake most of the night. (Menfolk, you’ve really got it made, trust me.)

My cat has an extra footpad/toe thingy behind each of her front paws, making six toes, and a little bump even farther up that looks like it could have been a toe if it tried harder. Cat owners, check your kitty paws: is this normal? Did I just miss this on my other cats?

OK, I’m going now.

photography 2 Comments

Contest Entries… Away!

Well, I done it. I e-mailed my six selections to the Popular Photography annual contest tonight. I ended up choosing:

+ Manual, Black Swamp Arts Festival, 2000
+ Mei (June 2004 – aka “The Artsy One”)
+ Wood County Fair (aka “Wood County DMB Under The Table Album Cover”)
+ Fort Meigs
+ Signpost, Michigan Renaissance Festival
+ Rose of Sharon

Photos I ended up not choosing and why:

The other Mei pic: I hadn’t been going to even consider that one until I posted it in my cubicle at work and Scott told me it looked like a postcard. I thought it looked like a snapshot, but that made me think maybe it was better… Well, maybe not.

East Hall, BGSU: Might have been more interesting with a more interesting sky. As it was… eh, it’s BG.

Gravity Games, Cleveland OH 2003: I agree with Amy that my composition was off. I cropped this one horizontally for a desktop theme earlier, but didn’t know how the crop would translate into an actual photo submission. I may try cropping and submitting it for another contest in the future, or I may just chalk it up to a learning experience and bring more than two rolls of film to this year’s Gravity Games. And my new teleconverter.

Cleveland Skyline: Didn’t receive the critical acclaim I was hoping for. I’d kind of liked it, but I liked the others more.

Random Affirmation (Birds Know They’re Alive): This was more of a “WTF?” snapshot that I took, and doesn’t have much artistic merit in and of itself. I still think it’s kind of a funny picture, but not necessarily contest material.

So… winners will be notified in October. I’m not getting my hopes up too much, but wish me luck, anyway. Go me!

photography 3 Comments

Let’s Take A Vote…

OK, I need everybody’s help here. And I do mean everybody’s. July 1st is the deadline to submit photos to Popular Photography & Imaging‘s annual photo contest. For the past few years, I’ve meant to enter, but my procrastination has gotten the best of me. This year, though, they’re allowing e-mail entries… so, I’m there. Problem is, I’m having trouble narrowing my entries down to only six.

I have an idea of which pics I’d like to submit, but I want your input, as well. So, check out my page o’ possibilities, then vote by leaving a comment here (or a tag on the front page). Vote for as many as you like, but tell me which of them is your favorite and why.

Thanks for your help, everybody… and remember, I need to e-mail these out by Wednesday night!