busy weekend

we went to an art exhibit at the memorial student center, the ward halloween dance and supercult movie night at the viz lab. we had great success building a willy wonka costume at the thrift store, played mah-jong, watched a handful of good movies, went star-gazing, and baked chocolate chip cookies. we ate at the hullabaloo diner, kolache rolf's and layne's chicken (of course.) we stocked the drink fridge in the lab, did a photo shoot in the studio, rode rides at the carnival and toured the blue bell ice cream factory (the "gingerbread house" ice cream is AMAZING.)
not bad for a five day visit.

tomato juice season

for my birthday just before i moved to texas, jack gave me a book by elder holland called trusting Jesus. it's a collection of talks that he's given (the ones i recognize, anyway) and contains some of his best, including "cast not away therefore your confidence."

but it also has what i think has replaced elder maxwell's final talk as my new personal favorite. i initially heard "an high priest of good things to come" on a cd that jaime gave me two years ago and liked it then (there was also a talk on there by elder scott that stood out to me more at the time) but she reminded me of it a few weeks ago. even today i took a break from working on my sunday school lesson and pulled the book off of my shelf to read it again.

"an high priest of good things to come." that's not one of the more commonly used titles of the Savior, but it's fascinating to think about; that He is aware of the good things that will come in our lives. we will all go through our own struggles and disappointments, and that doesn't mean we've done anything wrong. but there's hope, and that is wonderful. as elder holland encourages near the close of the talk, "there is help and happiness ahead--lots of it".

walk unafraid.

the best camera is the one you have in your hands

i was reading an article talking about how good photography has nothing to do with the quality of your camera or lens. it gave numerous examples of amazing shots that were taken on cell phones, $15 holgas, or with cameras deemed "broken." it then referenced this story as an example of thinking, if i just had that canon 24-105 l-series lens, then my pictures would be amazing. the truth is that a new lens by itself isn't going to make mediocre photography instantly better.

it's nothing new, but i wanted to share the story here.

Heading towards the station ... - 28/03/2008 10:09

Tucked away in our subconscious minds is an idyllic vision. We see ourselves on a long, long trip that almost spans the continent. We're traveling by passenger train, and out the windows we drink in the passing scene of cars on nearby highways, of children waving at a crossing, of cattle grazing on a distant hillside, of smoke pouring from a power plant, of row upon row of corn and wheat, of flatlands and valleys, of mountains and rolling hills, of biting winter and blazing summer and cavorting spring and docile fall.

But uppermost in our minds is the final destination. On a certain day at a certain hour we will pull into the station. There sill be bands playing, and flags waving. And once we get there so many wonderful dreams will come true. So many wishes will be fulfilled and so many pieces of our lives finally will be neatly fitted together like a completed jigsaw puzzle. How restlessly we pace the aisles, damning the minutes for loitering ... waiting, waiting, waiting, for the station.

However, sooner or later we must realize there is no one station, no one place to arrive at once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip. The station is only a dream. It constantly outdistances us.

"When we reach the station, that will be it!" we cry. Translated it means, "When I'm 18, that will be it! When I buy a new 450 SL Mercedes Benz, that will be it! When I put the last kid through college, that will be it! When I have paid off the mortgage, that will be it! When I win a promotion, that will be it! When I reach the age of retirement, that will be it! I shall live happily ever after!"

Unfortunately, once we get it, then it disappears. The station somehow hides itself at the end of an endless track.

"Relish the moment" is a good motto, especially when coupled with Psalm 118:24: "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." It isn't the burdens of today that drive men mad. Rather, it is regret over yesterday or fear of tomorrow. Regret and fear are twin thieves who would rob us of today.

So, stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles. Instead, climb more mountains, eat more ice cream, go barefoot oftener, swim more rivers, watch more sunsets, laugh more and cry less. Life must be lived as we go along. The station will come soon enough.

(Found as published in Dear Abby, The Station, By Robert J. Hastings, fwd mail)

i think i'm getting better at living the lesson of this story in my life; i've still got plenty to learn, but i'm working at it.

the counterpoint, though is that better resources, in the right hands, do yield greater results, so i still would like to have that lens. but just because i don't have it doesn't mean i'm going to stop taking pictures until i'm holding it in my arms.
...um, i mean, hands.

the stars at night are big and bright

apparently tonight is the best night
in years to see them together

i've been reading pages upon pages of heavy critical art theory for the last several hours and needed a break away from my computer and so decided to take a walk.

it was awesome.
just being outside, walking around my neighborhood felt great.
i've determined that, on an average day at school,  i spend between 45 minutes to an hour walking, but that's always with a destination, a deadline. to just be able to walk and not really think about anything particular was refreshing and soothing. so much so that i think i might make it a habit each day when i come home from school.

naturally, i found myself looking up at the stars and found myself wondering why jupiter and that other planet were so close together. then i found myself even wondering what that other planet was. and wondering if that red one that i thought was mars actually was mars. and then i remembered the google sky map app on my phone.
soon, i found myself grinning with delight in the dark as i was able to move my phone across the sky and immediately know every constellation above me. (that "other planet" was venus, by the way. duh.)
so, it seems that it might be time for an astronomy date again.


i also saw a shooting star.
and made a wish.

paradigm drift

i was up all night last night doing homework.
i slept through that class this morning because i wanted to get three hours of sleep instead of an hour and a half.
that's the beauty of submitting classwork on a website, i guess.

i vowed i would leave the lab by 11 tonight, midnight at the latest (never mind that i wanted to simply stay home during my dinner break at 6:30.) i left at 1:20 a.m.

i haven't seen my roommates in a few days, occasionally have to stop and think about what day it is or where i parked my car, and have needed to do laundry for a few days now.

but i'm a rock star at work, this week has brought some happy surprises, and i went to see breakfast at tiffany's on valentine's night.

plus i think i've learned a very valuable life lesson from ferris bueller's day off.
i'll write about some of those things later.

10 weeks

my weight training teacher said something interesting a few weeks ago. in talking about how we gain muscle and strength, he said that you really don't start to see major results until after about ten weeks.
technically speaking, i think this is my fourth time i've taken a weight training class. once, my dad gave me a hug at Christmas and noted that i felt stronger and bigger, and even after just a few days of class this semester i can feel a difference in myself, but i've never noticed myself looking particularly different. and if this ten weeks thing is true, that would make sense, since the classes run just about ten weeks. so, every time, i apparently just barely miss it.

i remember once reading an excerpt from brandon flowers, the frontman of the band the killers (and cool "i'm a mormon" guy). he was saying something to the effect that there were several instances where the band wanted to break for lunch or at the end of the day, but they kept working, writing, rehearsing, and that that would be when their music really went to a new level, and he said he hated to think what it would have been like if they hadn't pushed on, if they had just stopped where they were.

i think that's even a law of physics: a great amount of force is required to get an object moving from its inertial state, but once that has been overcome and the object is in motion, much less force is required for it to continue moving.

how many things in my life are like that? how many times have i put some effort and time into a project, a skill, a relationship, and then decided that nothing was coming was happening, nothing was growing, and decided it wasn't worth my time any more? have i put in all of the hard work only to move on just before the fruits began to show?
probably.

when an h.m.i. movie light is first turned on, it requires an immense amount of electricity to jump the gap between the two electrodes and create the electrical arc that produces the light. but once that initial arc is successful, it operates at a much lower voltage.

and so i'm working to be better about sticking with something and seeing what comes from it. because after those ten weeks is when it really gets good.

some things never change

2007//

2012//