Lessons

Today I've learned:

• To let Debbie handle things because Brian is too busy being Brian to actually handle anything.
  
  
• Not to rush when trying to refill coolers with Gatorade because in so doing, you will slam your hand into a shelf while trying to grab bottles and thus jack the fuck out of your knuckles.
  
  
• Rugby is mother fucking HARD CORE. Anyone who says different is lying. Today I saw two rugby players slam into each other face first, and in the process, both players broke their noses. AND THEY CONTINUED PLAYING.
  
  
• Rugby players -- generally speaking -- spit, cuss, bleed, curse, grunt, fight, slam, yell, and eat. Essentially, they are 6'2" of walking testosterone, all bollocks and swagger.
  
  
• It's kind of sexy.
  
  
• In fact, it's very sexy.
  
  
• In response, your estrogen will kick into high gear. You will want to bed all of the rugby players.
  
  
• So when only a fraction of the players actually show up to the bar, you will be very disappointed.
  
  
• Never go to Maggianos with Brian, and never let him order. Our poor waitress.
  
  
• Peach Bellinis are sofuckinggood.
  
  
• I have to do all of this again tomorrow.

I get by with a little help from my friends

Even though I've had the crappiest week (my car broke down, yes
again, and may cost as much as $800 to fix), I have to say, nothing is better than friends.

So thank you friends. Thank you to Jim, who sympathized and looked up info on new cars for me. Thank you to Jen, who is not only the best boss evah, but also carted my ass home. Thank you to Tammi, who was willing to be there.

But biggest THANK YOUS go out to Debbie and Brian. There is precious little wrong in this world that wine and belting out some Beatles songs can't cure. I just had a fabulous dinner, sang at the top of my lungs, laughed, cried, and earned British Street Cred. You made me forget my problems.

I love all of you guys.

And tomorrow: Rugby, Hot British Boys, Booze, and Photography.

I'll get through this. Everything is going to be OK. And as John Lennon said, Love is all you need.

Lights and Music Are on My Mind

Extreme Photo Post!

One of the reasons I love photography is the idea of capturing a moment, a split second in time. Cartier-Bresson calls this the decisive moment.

"The simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organization of forms which gives that event its proper expression...In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little human detail can become a leitmotif."

When I'm taking photos and I'm in my groove and I sort of know I'm getting good shots, it's such an awesome high. It's a combination of the schtuk sound of the shutter and the knowledge that I've captured that second. That second will never happen again, not ever, but I've trapped it and it's forever mine. I can't explain it properly.

All this to long-windedly and dorkily explain that on Saturday night, I was having a good photo night. I went to Juno's pub in Collegeville and took photos of The Machine Stops and Save the REC Center.

Matt, frontman of The Machine Stops, had asked me to come to this show and take some pictures for them, but had warned that the lighting might be a problem. I feared it would be another night of fighting with my auto-focus and constant blurry shots and eternal frustration -- because just as thrilling as it is when you know you're taking good pics, it's the lowest low when it's not working and you know it. But I needn't have worried. The lighting in that place was amazing. Or at least, I was working it. Planets aligned, mojo kicked in, and I became a photo maniac. I filled two whole cards with photos of both bands. Finally tally of photos is 455 (although that includes some duplicates in black and white).

Here are some of my favorites:











(In case you're confused, some of the members of The Machine Stops are also in Save the REC Center. Andy alone at last count is in, like, 57 bands.)











I love, love, love this shot of Mike and Nate. Something about all the angles and the way they're mirroring each other makes me happy.



This one is a little dark, but I like the way Mike seems to be creeping out of the shadows.





Aww. I love how joyful Andy looks in this shot.





I could go on all day like this. There are many more photos over at my flickr. MANY, I tell you.

One more, to grow on:

Obligitory Morning-After-Election Post

So Obama did not win Pennsylvania. Which is, sadly, what I was expecting. I was hoping for a tighter margin, 6 or 7%, but I have to say in 6 weeks Obama closed the gap between him and Hillary by close to 15%. I will take that 10% and turn my hopes to North Carolina, which is looking pretty good, and to Indiana, which will be tricky. There's always Guam, I guess.

I would like to register my exhaustion with politics. I am so, so tired. But I can't stop paying attention, because I know what is at stake, I know what needs to be done. I would also like to register my frustration with Democrats, Super Delegates, and political analysts. Democrats I sort of what to shake: point out how inconsistent and conservative Hillary is, urge them to look at the bigger picture. And the bigger picture is this: We need to get a Democrat in the White House. Who is going to have a better chance at taking the Presidential Election? Obama.

Super Delegates can eat my ass. I ask, again and again, what is so wrong with the popular fucking vote? Why not do what your constituents want? Stop fucking up the democratic process.

From Jim: "What's so aggravating is that the Dems finally have a great, charismatic, intelligent, motivating candidate -- and the Republicans are so, so vulnerable, and have such a vulnerable, unmotivating candidate -- and yet somehow it seems we may STILL find a way to blow it."

Word.

Political analysts are so, so stupid. CNN and MSNBC need to SHUT UP. Last night they called the election when 1% of the results were in. 1%! That is nothing short of retarded. Now you know why I watch BBC World News.


Confidential to Krista: I sort of feel bad for you because you're the only über conservative in the middle of a whole gang of über liberals. I don't want you to feel like we are attacking you. Because we're not. We just don't understand. Ok, I shouldn't speak for the group. I don't understand. Conservative values elude me. And last night, I was trying, very hard, to understand. And I don't and probably never will. But man, are you good for debate.

Power to the People

If you're one of my Pennsylvania readers you need to get out and vote today. VOTE VOTE VOTE.

Obviously, I voted for Obama, and hope you will too, because seriously I believe with my whole heart and mind that he is the best possible candidate. But that's not the issue.


The issue is about making your voice heard, about being active in the political process. It's been 8 long, hard years. If you would have told me 8 years ago that all this damage would have been done by one presidential administration, I would not have believed you. "No!" I would have said. "Surely we would impeach someone who lied and so blatantly hurt the American people. Surely we would kick them out of office, and Congress would rise up and stand for their constituents!"

I would have not thought it possible that we could be so apathetic as a nation. I would not believe that I would spend the evening of November 2, 2004 crying and bitterly disappointed in my generation, who once again failed to cast their votes. I have voted in every single election since I turned 18. I never understand why people in the 18-25 demographic toss away their chance to make a difference.

But all that is over. Now is the time for change. Now is the time to make a difference and take hold, shape our government the way we want it. To mobilize, and move forward. To check ourselves before we wreck ourselves, because seriously: we've got some cleaning up to do.

And today...Today the Pennsylvania Primary makes a huge difference. Get out and vote.



My breasts implore you to vote. Won't you listen?

Number 69? Check!

First of all you guys, I should tell you that I hate my list. I've come to the realization that I am going to FAIL, and miserably at that, at completing my list. Like, seriously. I have until the end of December to complete all of this nonsense and it is just not going to happen. Look at number 83. Do you know how much a new bed costs? I am sorry, I do not have $1000 to spare for something like that. In fact, I don't have $1000 for anything at all. And look at number 28. That, my friends, is an act of purist optimism considering that I suck at strategy and sort of hate RISK, not to mention that Gary lives at his job and therefore isn't around to play anyway.

But moving on...


69) See The Daily Show live.

I feel sort of bad crossing this one off of my list, since I really didn't do anything at all to achieve this. Huge, major, MAD props go out to Christopher, since he did all of the work to get us to see this show. I just blithely allowed myself to be led around New York to all the Snark and Awesome.

And I really need to thank Christopher because not only did he arrange for the tickets and such, he also planned the entire day out for us. What time we should leave, how we should get there, what trains and subways to take, where to eat lunch, etc. I didn't have to worry about anything! He even had a little map that he printed out from the internet and a list of all the subways and their stops and which bus* to get on. It was all rather Eagle Scoutish and endearing, so of course Kelly and I had to give him shit for it. But really, it was a godsend and it was so nice to not have to worry about anything. So thank you, Christopher.

And friends, it was wonderful. I mean, the standing in line for an hour kind of sucked, but really, that was the worst part of the day. And if standing in line for a bit is the worst thing you can say about an experience like this, then you're doing pretty good.

We had Jose with us, and we managed to convince him to play the gimp card. And it worked, because they walked us around from the back so we got to walk across The Daily Show stage and thus right past Jon Stewart's desk. We also got rad seats right on the floor in the second row so I was about 20 paces from the man the entire time (the studio is TINY).

Jon Stewart is just as sexy, funny, and nice in person as you could hope. He took a few minutes to answer questions from the audience, was able to riff with general aplomb when some silly woman's cell phone went off -- despite approximately 50,000 reminders from all of the show's staff and crew to turn your cell phones off, not on vibrate or silent, but OFF, COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY OFF -- in the middle of the interview portion of the show, and then later still was so kind to her by telling her not to worry about it, that the editors would snip it out, and relating a funny a story about the Oscars. He was just so lovely and completely awesome. How I did not run on stage and tackle him in a moment of fan-girl glee is beyond me. It took a lot of self control, let me tell you.

The show whizzes right by when you're in the audience. The commercial breaks are considerably shorter, and sadly, Jon has no time to chat or engage with the audience during them since he's getting notes from writers/producers/fancy TV people during the breaks. Since the show goes by so quickly it's kind of anticlimactic when it ends. I don't want to say that it's a let down or anything, because it's not. It's just that the warm up people get you so pumped and your cheering loudly and laughing and giddy and excited and you really do sort of want to tackle Jon Stewart in a bear hug or at least high-five him, and then all of the sudden it's over. And you have to go about your normal Jon Stewart-free existence, and let's face it, it's just not as good.

Also dorkingly thrilling to me was to see how it was all done. Being an old amateur theater techie, I really coveted the crew's Boba Fett ear pieces and the dashing about with wires and watching them wheel the cameras in. I kind of want to work there. Hello Daily Show, will you hire me? I work hard and I am cute!

The show we taped broadcast last evening at 11 p.m. (which we didn't get to see because we were on our way home) and is being rebroadcast tonight at 8 p.m. (which I won't get to see because I'll be in class) so you should try to catch it and listen for Christopher's whistles and my WOOOOOOO!

*A bus, I might add, that we never got on, much to Christopher's dismay. We walked instead since 1) It was a beautiful spring day, 2) traffic was kind of sucky, and 3) It was only a mile, fer cryin' out loud. But M20 bus, if you're reading this, Christopher loves you and totally wanted to have a rendezvous with you.

While on the subject of apples...

Tomorrow I'm headed to the Big one! As in New York. Tell me if this doesn't sound awesome:

• Taking the train to the city
  
  
• Meeting up with Jose!
  
  
• Eating lunch at a fab Mexican Restaurant where hopefully there will be margaritas the size of my head.
  
  
• Stalking Jon Stewart Going to a taping of The Daily Show
  
  
• Taking as many photos as my camera can take and probably annoying the crap out of Kelly, Christopher and Jose in the process.

I know right? I'm stoked.

An Open Letter to Apple and iDVD

Dear Apple and iDVD,

Hi. Apple, baby, you know I love you. I just wanted to get that out of the way.

But.

Can you just tell me: Is there anyway, I mean ANYWAY AT ALL, to burn a DVD file using iDVD and not use all the preset menus and crap?

See, all I want is to burn a simple DVD for my viewing pleasure that will play in a DVD player and that be all. I don't need a menu. Or chapters. Or scene selection. Or fun music playing in the background. I mean, all those option are nice and fancy and everything. But frankly, I don't need them and it is currently taking FOREVER to render on this one DVD.

AND IT IS PISSING ME OFF.

Please, please. I've had a hectic day, and I'm running late and I might RUIN the return of Whosday, not to mention Henry's Whosbirthday! Which, as I don't need to point out, is VERY IMPORTANT.


Thanks,

EightK

Owned

Friday night, Rosemont, @ the MFA Reading:

Liz: How's work?

Me: It's good, I guess. A little boring lately, actually.

Liz: Well, that should give you plenty of time to write.

Me: [blushes]

Liz: Right?

Me: Yeah. [*stares sheepishly at shoes*]

High Fives All Around!

Friday was Justine's Birthday. So we all went to Roache's and acted silly for a few hours. And in my compulsive need to document everything, I took photos.



The Birthday Girl herself!



Her Boyfriend, who is probably one of the most photogenic people I know.

It was a random, fun night that included:




Music making, using nothing but our hands!



Silly hat wearing!



Smelling what Nate's eyebrow is cooking!



Modeling in the phone booth for me!



High-fiving random drunk guys in the bar!



Shocking twists and developments!

The night also apparently included Luke Wilson, as he is in town shooting a movie at both Rosemont and Bryn Mawr, who was at the bar with us. Sadly, we were all too oblivious (e.g. - Drunk, silly, and having too much fun with ourselves) to notice.

More photos are here.

Bummed, but not surprised

Well, bugger.

I guess blonds are more fun.

Shit.

Well, he doesn't know what he's missing. That's what I keep telling myself anyway. Cheers.

Operation Get Published: Vote for Me!

One of my photos is up for submission over at JPG magazine and you should go vote for it. Because if I could get published, that would be rad.

Thank you!

Open Letters

Dear Warm Weather,

Well helllllllllooo there. I missed you all winter long. Don't ever leave me. I adore you. You make me feel happy and energetic.

Fondly,

EightK

--

Dear BBC,

Oh please, oh please, consider making Doctor Who available for download from iTunes. Because I would seriously fork over the $2.99 or I guess £ 2.99 which is about $6 here since the faffing dollar is such rubbish, but ANYWAY I would pay it, is what I'm telling you. The new season of Who has started and the internet is alight with spoilers and I am DYING over here. I guess you don't want to make it available since you have that deal with the Sci-Fi channel -- who by the way, will chop the episodes to shreds and delete character developing scenes for the sake of god damn commercials -- but 4 weeks is too long to wait and besides, I'll probably still watch them when they come on Sci-Fi anyway. Because that's just the type of dorky fan I am. It's all your fault for making such a good show anyway. As it is, I've had to revert to other methods.

You have no one to blame but yourself, you know.

Longingly,

EightK

--

Dear Luke,

Thank you so much. You know exactly why. You completely made my week.

Love,

EightK

--

Dear KOP Mall,

I know I've asked you this before, but I am asking you again because my need is that great. Please get yourself a Torrid. You have every other store on the planet, why not a Sassy Big Girl Hot Topic?

Get on it,

EightK

--

Dear Skirt,

What are you doing in a puddle around my feet?

Yours,

EightK

--

Dear Waistline,

Where did you go? Holy shit, did I really loose that much of you that my favorite skirt actually FELL OFF of me when I tried it on last night. Who knew that exercise actually worked?

I guess this is a good thing?

I still wish you were one fat roll of saddness less,

EightK

--

Dear EightK,

Well that's torn it. I guess that hot outfit you planned for tomorrow night isn't going to happen seeing as all your clothes are now too big. I guess you should skip class tonight and go shopping, as a treat to yourself.

Keep rocking out,

EightK

Johnny 5 is still alive

Dear Hollywood:

YOU HAVE OFFICIALLY RUN OUT OF IDEAS. STOP IT.

Way to ruin one of my favorite childhood movies,

Kate

Eleven Minutes...of AWESOME

Kelly and I went to the film festival on Saturday and saw this film, which was great. It's showing again tonight, if you want to check it out.

Also, we were thisclose to Jay McCarroll (he brushed up against my shoulder!) and totally could have talked to him, only Kelly and I were ill prepared and were dressed in jeans and hoodies and neither of us had the good sense to bring a pen or a camera. Nor did we have anything particularly interesting to say to him ("OMG! You're Jay McCarroll! You design awesome things!"), and would have sounded like noobs.

There was an after party at the Fels Planetarium where Jay would be showing his line, which Kelly and I really wanted to go to, but sadly we were bound by the SEPTA schedule and had to catch the last R5. Bugger.

How Philly Moves

My favorite local photographer has a new project: How Philly Moves.

Any dancers out there? Hit it! You'll be famous!

I wonder if he has any Irish dancers signed up.

Twelve highlanders and a bagpipe make a rebellion

Today is Tartan Day. Sean Connery wrote something very interesting in the Los Angeles Times.

Now, I'm just an American of Irish Catholic descent, so I don't know anything. But I have to say, that all sounds very inspiring and awesome.

Examining Insecurity

Back when I wrote about SkirtGate, I wrote Luke a Myspace message basically to thank him for being awesome and standing by me. In response he wrote to me:

Over the past couple years it has been obvious (at least to me) that there was something wrong with the way you perceived your physical image. Obviously I never asked, because EVERYONE goes through this at one time or another, but I can tell you that at times I have wondered what would make one of the most confident people I've ever met take such a slide.

This was fascinating to me, because I have never thought of myself as a particularly confident person. Ever.

And yet, the word keeps coming up. As I was looking through my journal today, I came across an entry from forever ago, something I drunkenly scribbled that led to this post the next day. "B" struggling to come up with a compliment for me saying to me, "You are the most confident...confident..."

But then today in the car as we were coming back from Kutztown Jim said to me, "Katie, I think you should be more confident."

"Okay!" I replied, all energetic-like, as if I could just take off my Insecurity T-shirt and plunk on my Confidence T-shirt.

It wasn't like anything major prompted Jim to make this comment. Not in my mind anyway. We had just passed a roller rink and I made the suggestion that we should go roller skating sometime, even though, as I put it, "I'm a complete klutz and always falling down."

Jim pointed out to me that I am always putting myself down and saying things like "I'm klutzy" or "I'm dumb."

"Seriously, though," I told him. "I'm not just being self-depreciating right now. I really am a klutz on wheels and fall down when I roller skate. No lie, the last time I went skating my ass was 4 different shades of purple from falling down."

Stephanie pointed out that I do this with any number of things -- from writing, to my weight; from my photography, to my hair. And really, she's not wrong. She pointed out that she does it too -- but why?

This got me thinking: At what point does good natured self-depreciation become a cycle of insecurity and self-hatred? Where does that line reside, and at what point did I cross it? Is putting myself down simply a fucked up way of "softening the blow" because I think that others will trash me and maybe it won't hurt as bad if I do it first? That way I can tell you all that I told you so?

I don't know the answers to these questions, but I do know that my confidence is something I promised myself I would work at. Stephanie and I have plans and projects in the works and self-esteem is something that factors into it, big time.

A little over a year ago, Zefrank did a Show on creativity. It's a show I come back to a lot, because he talks about having the courage to start projects, to believe in your ideas and take that first step. As this is something I constantly struggle with, it meant a lot to me, and I appreciated hearing it from someone who I view as very creative and successful.

"...that unity seems to be found in that word, 'creativity'. I'm amazed we have one word that can apply to all these different things. A word that evokes wonder when I think about what other people have done. But evokes fear and self-doubt when I think about myself. Some people think of it as a born-in attribute like big hands and big feet. Some people think of it as infrequent visitations from an other-wordly muse. Some people think of muscle that can be built up and trained. And many people don't think about it at all.

Sometimes I think about confidence, what it takes to get from zero to one. It seems like what you think about creativity can affect that confidence. There's a book edited by Robert Sternburg that deals with psychological research into creativity. One of the articles says that one of the only reliable indicators for increased creativity (however they measure it) is a person's belief that creativity is something that you can work on, and change.

Confidence about gaining confidence.

For me that's the interesting battleground: fighting against things I don't think are possibilities. Not with the goal of having an inflated sense that you know you can do something. But instead just to get that glimmer of hope of possibility. To move from zero to one.

Those battles of confidence are what make that word 'creativity' so terrifying for me."

Oh, I hear you, ZeFrank.

I don't have any pat conclusion for this post. It's very late at night -- Kelly and I just got back from the Flim Festival -- and I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow in the library doing school work. I think this line of examination is important. And I'm curious. What do you think? Where do you struggle? How often do you put yourself down, and why?

Springtime Tunes

So it's spring now! Hurray! I've been busy getting all of my springtime ducks in neat little rows, because the next couple weeks are going to be very busy. I've got birthday parties, photo gigs, film festivals, projects due, presentations to present, finals to hand in, softball games, bachelorette parties, and weddings!

To go along with this busy life-style, I need a good soundtrack.

For anyone that knows me, my music preferences cycle with the seasons. In the fall I lean towards lots of punk and alternative, in the winter I slow it down with mellow, moody tunes. But in the spring and summer I crave poppy, light, happy tunes to match the weather and my hectic dashing about.

I need your help! Who has some good tunes for me? I've been listening to a lot of Feist, Vampire Weekend, and the Juno Soundtrack. But I need new stuff, so start recommendin' -- I'm pretty eclectic, so I like a lot of stuff -- don't be afraid to throw something out to me.

Shut up, PowerPoint

Dear PowerPoint,

Shut up. I hate you and your retarded "Master Slide" that apparently DOES NOTHING other than give me the false impression* that by formating the master, it will in turn format all other slides to those specifications. I ask you, what is the point? I just futzed with you for no less than 40 minutes. You suck. Obviously you are Master of nothing, go and learn from a real Master.

Bletch,

8K

P.S. - I hate how you and all other Microsoft Office programs think I'm too dumb or uncreative to format my own shit and constantly insist on doing it for me. I don't want a frickin' page number there. I KNOW WHAT I WANT, LET ME DO IT.

*OK, I just checked -- that is the WHOLE POINT of a master slide. From your own instructions: "The master that holds the formatted placeholders for the titles, main text, and any background items you want to appear on a group of slides (usually all) in a presentation. If you make a change to the slide master, the change affects all slides in your presentation based on that master." Only, of course, it doesn't. HAAAATE. And Shut up.

April Fools...

... from your friendly office Goths.




Poor Miss J looks so bewildered in this photo. While the rest of us are ready for TEH DARKNESS.