take the rope.

well- its official. louisville has done me good, so far at least.

moved in to new house: check.  repaired car that was targeted by awful teen driver en route to louisville from lexington: check.  found out i need to get my wisdom teeth taken out: check. landed job(s) plural: check. what is left to conquer in this "possibility city" i say?  well, for starters, get these treacherous teeth removed.  then, possibly adopt a pet of some sort.  honestly, i feel like there is so much room for opportunity that i don't know where to start.  the only problem with opportunity, for me at least, has been finding the time to seize it!  how is is possible that i became busier during my unemployment than i was with a full time job? believe me, it's possible.  but i am not complaining! one thing i can say is that God always provides.  it is only because of Him that i have always managed to get by and be sustained.  i don't know why i even worry sometimes because He never fails to prove His providence when i am most in need of it.  

in other news, i recently posted an Ok Go video that fit well with my situation at the time. ironically, i saw them live (and for free!) this week and felt the need to post another fitting (ok completely unrelated) song of theirs.  although their music is quite good, i think that these guys' real genius is revealed in their simple, yet remarkable music videos.  if you ever have the time, check out some of their other videos, you won't be disappointed!

below is "end love" by Ok Go, which really has little relevance to anything going on in my life, but if i stretched really far i could say that the lines

"it's time to decide.
'cause no one's gonna save you if you don't swim for the boat.
no one's gonna save you if you won't take the rope.
no one's gonna find you when you're hiding in the dark. no one's gonna find you."

are somewhat related because i am indeed "swimming for the the boat"...of opportunity. and "taking the rope"...of adventure...?  i know, i'm just digging a hole of lameness, but nonetheless,  i am taking initiative to make things happen, so we'll see where i end up!

listen, it's just a cool video, ok? i mean, i have to have some gimmick to keep the readers coming back.

home sweet home.

its official. i have been saying it for years now, but i have finally decided to take the leap and move back to my beloved hometown of louisville.  do i have a place to live? yes. do i have a job? no. and this is the somewhat unnerving part. in case you live under a rock and haven't heard, the job market is not the best right now, and to make matters worse, i am in the art "industry" if it can be referred to in such a way.  but this is the reality i have always been mentally prepared for when i chose art as a career. anyways, job concerns aside, i am very excited to be moving back to one of the greatest cities i know (and i have been to a lot of great cities!).  i know i am a bit bias, but louisville truly has so much to offer, not to mention an amazing art community that i cannot wait to get involved in! this break will also give me a chance to really build up a photography business and see where that can go. take a look for yourself at the beginnings of a hopefully thriving business and i will keep you update on how things go!

Crooked Tree Photography

also, i love this promo video for louisville!

carless.

what an enlightening situation i find myself in- i am such an american. a recent car accident (not my fault) has left me carless, stranded, and a bit wiser in the ridiculous ways of the good ol' u-s-of-a. not only did i get jipped by the insurance companies, but i have realized just how reliant i am on a personal mode of transportation. as i revert back to my middle school days of bumming rides and desperately seeking someone to take me to and from work, i can't help but wonder why our country has not caught on to the revolutionary idea of quality and convenient public transportation. what a concept! {new york, california and d.c. are irrelevant in the following rant} i have already exhausted the rental car business and my bank account simultaneously, so the next logical option would be...what? yeah, mine was begging coworkers to go out of their way in the mornings and evenings to transport my helpless rear-end. the lextran (lexington bus system) did not even enter into my mind as an option. perhaps i am an elitist snob, but i will accept that insult any day if it means i do not have to resort to making the trek in the snow to the nearest bus stop, then calculating the stops/travel time required to get to my destination and paying for it on top of that. wow, i realize how bad that just sounded, but i already said it once- i am an american, therefore i am ridiculous. anyways, as day 3 of begging and day 1 of car shopping comes to a close, i am reminded that there is not much i can do to change this situation so i just need to make the most of it- and in the words of OK GO, "get over it."

Ok Go- Get over it video

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right on.

this guy beautifully sums up my number one complaint about so many of my fellow "believers" and how their words and actions have the opposite effect of what was originally intended. it should be a wake up call to all of us to get back to the basics of Christianity- and that is simply to LOVE others because He first loved us.

http://www.esquire.com/features/best-and-brightest-2009/shane-claiborne-1209

a classic.

today i stumbled across this juicy morsel of prime literature that i had posted on my myspace about 3 years ago.  after deleting the dozens of friend requests and inbox messages that had accumulated over the last few months of forgetting that i even had a myspace account, i decided to post this little beauty because it brought back very fond memories and made me laugh out loud that that was actually my life at one point in time. oh how things change. but i miss it.

so i couldn' t sleep in past 10:30 this morning and its my first day to not have to wake up before 9 in 5 days. dont get me wrong. i tried to.  but ultimately, i was just laying there, squeezing my eyelids closed and not really enjoying it. so i got up. i guess thats a good thing because i used to be able to sleep all day if i wanted to. im a sleeping fiend. well, i used to be. 

but the glory of being a carhop at sonic has broken me of this.  (this is the point where you all get jealous).  yes, my summer job (as it has remained for the last 3 years), is none other than your local American drive-in: SONIC.  now dont get me wrong, i love my job. and i make more money than your mom doing it. but recently, our a/c has been out. and in case you havent noticed, its hotter than hades outside. yes, summer was reluctant to arrive the first week after school, when i had nothing to do but relax and enjoy my life, and the temperatures remained at sub-60's. i guess the sun gods were just waiting for me to begin my fate as a food deliverer (which entails me being outside 70% of the time standing beside cars as they blow hot exhaust on me while people take their precious time finding the EXACT change) and then of course returning to the grilles and air conditionless madness inside.

but dont get me wrong, i DO love my job. i love receiving zip-lock bags full of pennies as payment.  i love being proposed to by my manager who sexually harrasses me on a daily basis (no need to worry, its all fun and games). i love sitting on the patio during my break with jon, the 60 year-old cook, telling me about his days of cliff-jumping in the navy back in '76. i love the goofy smile that emerges on people's face when i hand them a delectable dessert. i love being hit on by 40 year-old construction workers and the occasional mullet-clad lesbian. i love getting a $2 tip for a $0.50 drink. i love accidentally answering my cell phone with "welcome to sonic..." because i say it on instinct now.  i love wearing an oversized polo that allows for no air-flow and a matching visor. i love being one of the "best" carhops. i love when i unexpectedly serve someone from my past, whether they recognize me or not. i love when my friends come to visit me even though i usually dont get to stop and talk. i love being yelled at because a cook forgot to put bacon on a sonic bacon cheeseburger. i love working with people who take their job WAY too seriously and have made carhopping a career. i love seeing the interesting things lurking in people's backseats as i stand and wait for them to sign their credit card bill. i love going home every day covered in icecream and sweat, wanting to do nothing but shower. but most of all, i love coming to work each day not knowing what kind of insanity i will encounter.
and that is why i sit here, on a sunday morning (the only day of the week i will never work) and actually kinda miss the place.

but for now, i must make my day off productive as well. i think i will go for a run, then maybe a swim in the pool, then church of course. and later i may just stop by good ol' sonic. you know, so i can "check the schedule" ;).  

and this would be me as a zombie carhop for halloween '06.  and yes, i wore roller skates.

amateurs.

i just want to put something out there that has been burdening me since the moment i graduated college and then realized that i was solely responsible for supporting myself (a very scary thought). when you choose a career path that does not require you to mold young minds, hold a political office, or have an extra D & R before your name, you pretty much enter into a world of uncertainty and chance. now i like to consider myself to be more of the adventurous type. yeah, i like to take risks, challenge myself, take the road less traveled...or at least that's what i have been trying to tell myself ever since i did not choose one of the aforementioned careers and instead went with something i enjoy as a career. what i am now plagued with is the notion of whether or not choosing a career based on personal satisfaction is ultimately more beneficial than choosing one that ensures stability and perhaps even a decent paycheck.

allow me to digress the the real point of this particular blog entry; one that i hope enlightens and awakens what seems to be a somewhat oblivious audience. i am in the creative field- design/photography to be more definitive. this is an area that has exploded in the last decade or so as better cameras and software have emerged and become available to consumers of every skill level. this is a good and bad, very bad, thing. good for all you young mothers wanting to capture every moment of your child's new life, and good for all you college students searching for moments to document and post on the latest social networking site. but lets get real for a second because this phenomenon is potentially fatal to all of us who have set out to make a living creating beautiful images. to all of you who have hired a friend who somewhat knows how to operate a camera to shoot your wedding; to those who think picnik is a great editing tool; to all of you out there who happened to get lucky and take one decent picture and think 'hey i could do this for a living!'- please, please stop replacing what could be beautiful, skillfully planned, quality images with poor attempts at recreating the former. i look at some of the stuff put out there and just cringe that most people are not knowledgeable enough to realize the lack of work or skill that actually went into the making of it- and because of this, they buy into it. this is where the true craftsmanship and knowledge get overlooked because people are ignorant enough to put out such crap. there is a reason good photography is expensive- and WORTH the INVESTMENT. photography is the only mechanism for freezing the moments in time worth revisiting each time we glance at a photo. it is the only thing that will last from your wedding (other than your vows let's hope) and one of the few things that can allow emotions and special moments to become permanent and tangible objects.

i am not claiming to be a perfect or even fully qualified photographer- but i have the ability and inspiration to do the job right and do it well. i am still learning and growing, but i think that is what every great artist constantly seeks to do in order to perfect their art. take it or leave it, but at least understand this- i do not attempt to give medical, political or educational advice because i am not under the false impression that i know what im talking about in regards to such subjects. in the same way, give us photographers a fighting chance and invest in our know-how. and your smile will resurface each time you gaze at that perfectly captured moment later on down the road.

*p.s. i almost contradict myself with the accompanying photo which was taken with my webcam and edited in 5 mins. but not quite.

i went to europe.

there is no feasible way i could even begin to summarize my spring journey across the pond. so i will not even attempt to. instead, i will provide you with a few photos i took while on the trip and a brief description of the 10 flight, 4 country, 3 person adventure.

1. Hungary/Budapest- we stayed with Adam's Hungarian family and enjoyed a day visit to the capital's parliament building, castle, city centre, etc, and then enjoyed a night out on the town, of course.

2. London/England- it was cool, but not the highlight of the trip for any of us. maybe if we had stayed for longer than 24 hours...

3. England/Oxford/Newcastle- i envy the students that get to attend school in such a diverse and wonderful city. oxford is a real treasure. we also stayed on a farm that was over 300 years old, house and all. sheep everywhere. heaven.

4. Scotland/Edinburgh/Highlands/Isle of Skye- edinburgh is officially one of my all-time favorite places. beautiful city and history- words are insufficient. scottish highlands also = GORGEOUS. i may move there. really.
(also had a day/night stay on the isle of skye- beautifully beautiful beauty there, for REAL.)

5. IRELAND/Galway/Dublin- lifelong goal fulfilled. ireland truly lives up to all raves about its beauty. spent several days traveling the coastline of the Galway countryside- the REAL ireland. we then spent a day/night in dublin...much too short of a visit, plans to return inevitable.

trash shoot.

here are a couple highlights from my most recent photo shoot. my fellow red-headed friend rachael was gracious enough to brave the cold and dive in a dumpster for this one. dont worry, i only tortured her for 30 mins...this time. expect some more fun shoots once the weather becomes bearable!

brrrr.

alert! alert! in case you haven't seen us on the news, kentucky has been hit HARD by a ice/snow storm. so here i sit in a starbucks using the free wi-fi, not because i dont have power (like most of our city) but because i am accompanying a friend who is the victim of the power outage and in need of some www action. but despite all the damage that it has brought, this storm has afforded me some priceless moments which i could not have experienced otherwise. for instance, i had the joy of shoveling my entire driveway, being launched in the air after stepping on a deadly patch of ice, and (!) missing a day of work. two out of three aint bad i suppose... here are some pics and a video of the glorious catastrophe that is actually really beautiful. the ice-covered trees and white blanket over everything makes for a fantastical winter wonderland. but im ready for some heat.

down with the trees

well, it's been a while since i have posted, so here is one of my poems from a while back. enjoy.

neon orange replaced the delicate green when those
cones went up and the trees came down.
i thought i saw a daffodil poking through the earth...
but then again i forgot what a daffodil looks like.
i can recall the shape and texture of the
bulldozers i see to my left and right;
their yellow replacing that of the flowers they crush.
there is nothing to replace the greenish hue
except a soda can here and there-
maybe a wrapper or two.
a shopping mall is being built.
man advances, nature concedes.
and all the while,
people sit in front of their little white boxes,
typing away and moving forward...
plotting their futures and forgetting that because of this,
they will go down
with the TREES.