What I Posted on Myspace- NYE

It's been a really long time since I've written anything here- mainly because I've been keeping another: http://stillmanphotography.blogspot.com/

It was my "new year's resolution" to update that every day, but it's just not going to happen- I generally do put up a photo or two for every day... just maybe 5 days later. whatever!

2008 has been a tough year for pretty much everybody. A lot of bad, and a lot of changes... but there have been some good things too. I lost my job, but that left me with money to finally buy my camera, time to go to CA for the first time to see Jon, Lisa and my brother, an open schedule to see my friends and the Neil and basically just enjoy myself.

I moved from Stafford, and I miss my Stafford people quite a bit. I think that everybody is in a better place now though. Now I'm in Brooklyn and reconnecting with the friends I neglected while living a whole 40 minutes away.

The economy sucks. In 21 days Obama will be president, and I have hopes for that. High hopes. Selfish hopes.

Andrew and I are working on a 3-D/ lenticular printing scheme (I mean... we were- and then the holidays hit... ) and set a goal for getting our shite together for an art show in the South End in June 2009.

Kate and I are planning on going to CA in February (depending on Jon's schedule- he won a fantastic contest and will be coming to NY for 6 weeks- road trip!!)

I can not wait to go to NH a couple times this summer... I had a dream about it the other night. And Maine- oh boy. Can't wait.

I can not complain. I am jobless- but my new year's resolution is to start looking. I can only blame myself for not already having a job... but I'm in no rush, and I want to find the right fit.

I've been going to the gym 4-5 times a week and I've never felt better.

Life is good. And it should only get better.

I hope that you all find the good things in your life and focus on what ever they may be. We all have things to be thankful for, and positive aspects of our lives that we can improve upon. It does us no good to focus on negativity. If it's one thing I learned from reading "The Secret" it's that. *jokes!*

Best wishes to all my friends for a very happy New Year!!

Day 36- New Year's Eve

It snowed again today... I put the birdseed out yesterday though and Aidan's friends came by. He gets very excited for friends!

That's how I can call him to come too. "Aidan! Friends!" and he'll come flying... but like the boy who called wolf... I don't use that too often, because he trusts me for some reason.

Day 35

I just wrote a post and realized that I was going to have to delete it or get in some serious trouble. Kate- you saw what I was doing prior to leaving for the bank/ Sturbridge. This is the "after" when you dropped me off. Point= Made.

Everybody else: Don't Even Worry About It.
Seriously.

Day 34

Went to Sturbridge with Kate for dinner. I suppose in and of itself, Sturbridge is a nice town. Since I used to work at the evil hotel though... it gives me a bit of anxiety being there... like crazy laughing anxiety.

But we went to the picadilly anyway. Billy was far too busy to come over and say hi- had to unload a wood pellet mixer for his dad. Whatever. WHATEVER. =]

This is me stalking the host... oh... no nevermind... forget it.

This is how beautiful the Publick House looked (the host looked like poop.):







I also took photos the whole way home- playing with aperture and such... it was amusing for me, but you know... not that awesome photo wise...

I need a tripod. A lot. Santa forgot to bring me snow tires too.

Day 33

I didn't take any photographs.

I did watch Burn After Reading though- and you should too.

Day 32

No photos today either.

Very busy.

Very important.

Day 31

Nope.

Didn't take a single photo.

Day 30- Christmas

This is not my self portrait of the month... but I got this jacket for Christmas and this is what I look like when I'm fully wearing it:

Day 29

Neil got me a fantastic book for my photography education... It jumps right in from the first page with stuff I really need to learn. Most likely, since I have "assignments" with this book, I'll be posting them here to keep you all entertained.

In the meantime- here's Aidan looking wistful. Really wishes Santa would move his ass and get here already!

Day 28

That picture that I posted a link to yesterday... yeah- my mom submitted that to the Norwich Bulletin and they printed it today. My mom was SUPER excited about it, and I was too, but the excitement has since worn off. I got a by line. So there. Good then!

I made cookies.

Day 27

I've been published! Sorta!

Check out #78
Willy on the Web!

Day 26

So when I started this project, I installed Google analytics, because it provides some interesting information. statistics. i love statistics.

i think what's most interesting right now, is that i've had visits from a number of countries, including one from Iran. Thanks Iran. Two from France too- one from Paris and one from Bourges.

I'll have to remember to keep an eye on that.

I think it's safe to say I took these pictures after midnight so they count as Sunday photos...

Jill

AJ

Jason, Kate, and AJ...

and again... only AJ gets to be in focus for real though...

Jay

Timmy

I'm just going to put this out there... but... I'm pretty fantastic at beer pong. Just saying.

And this is the photo I took of Willy today- mom's printing and putting it in some Christmas cards.

Day 25

It snowed yesterday.

Going to Stafford now- to JT's to celebrate Kate's 30th birthday.

Whoo!

Day 24

Today is THE BIG SNOW STORM! I got an email from my mom saying it was snowing and I decided that was the time to run to the store. So that I did. My car has low profile sporty tires. Because my car is kind of a low profile sporty kind of car. I don't know WHAT I was thinking getting this thing. My corolla was a trouper. LOVED driving in the snow in that car- if there was a snowbank- I could plow right through.

Back to the dumb cobalt- I got out of the driveway, and sort of slid down the hill in front of my house. Slid right through the stop sign at the end of the road too, but got control of the car before it hit that tree, and before I got to route 6. Route 6 was a bit better because there were more cars warming up the pavement. Almost slid past the road I needed (going to Brooklyn Market or whatever it's called now to get my mom some food items and me some diet coke- EMERGENCY!!) and barely got control of the car pulling into a space.

Side note- I grew up in New England and know how to handle a car in 'weather'. I am not a dumb girl. Trust me on that one.

I get the diet coke and get out of there- there's already a big accident on Route 6/ Route 169 intersection- somebody in an SUV rear ended a CL&P truck. Good job!

I slowly pulled up to Brown Road, and took my left (and my life in my hands) and successfully pulled up the hill. Slowly. I couldn't really hit the gas at all, because as soon as I did, the car would lose traction. I couldn't hit the brakes for sure, because the car would lose traction. I barely made it back up the hill to my house. BARELY.

The dumb cobalt isn't that dumb though... every time I lost traction it would flash "Low Traction". Very helpful! "Ice Possible". You're not kidding cobalt- thanks!

Dear Santa,

New Tires Please!!



Love,
Liz

Day 23

My mom's cat, Grace. She's pretty.

Not very nice a lot of the time though... and definitely not graceful.

Day 22

Kate told me last night that I was "the worst blogger ever".

Dear Kate,

Love always,
Liz

In other news- it snowed today.

Day 21

Look! He does tricks!

On a side note- Aidan is a lovely adorable cat that does not hate me. He does hate me teasing him with tasty treats and taking his picture... with flash. He mostly hates the flash. He moves too much to not use flash though.

Day 20

Day 19

Borella making breakfast...


View from the living room. I'd be more than just ok with that view...


and Old Trinity...

Day 18

Day 17

Day 16

Dad's been here for pretty much all day... I snapped a couple of photos when he wasn't looking...







It smells good too. Like wet rotten wood.

Day 15

Kate brought it to my attention that it was past Wednesday morning. Well. I'm running low on excuses... but I sort of got sick. No really. Yesterday afternoon I slept from 5:15 til 9ish when my mom woke me up because she knew I'd be regretting going to bed that early around 2am or so.

So my dad came over a couple weeks ago to pick me up so we could go for a hike in Hampton. The boy scouts fixed up some trails and it was quite nice. Built some bridges and benches. Good boys. While dad was at the house I pointed out that the ceiling in the kitchen was literally falling apart.

See:


So he went upstairs and checked out the bathroom because that's probably where the leak is coming from... he saw my mom and told her he'd be back to take a look at it again... which he did... today.



That black junk on the floor is the head of the bolt that used to hold the back end of the toilet down. It disintegrated when he touched it. So... that's good. Also you can see the tile is sort of coming up. That's because the floor is completely rotted out there. Pretty awesome!

He wanted to pretend this never happened, back out slowly and hopefully she'll never know. He likened it to stepping in a bees nest and pulling your foot out and staying still and hopefully the bees won't notice. good times.

This is where the concrete is literally rotted. I didn't even know concrete could do that.



Anyway- he's slightly concerned that one of us will end up in the kitchen some day a lot sooner than we had expected, so he's going to try to fix it... if my mom gives him the go ahead...

Day 14

In case anybody has been checking this- been very busy with the life and all... I haven't unloaded the photos off my camera in a few days and will update the blog accordingly Wednesday morning.

Update (Wednesday 2:48PM)

Day 13

Day 12

Came back from Stafford this afternoon, went for a walk with my mom to find a Christmas tree without much luck. It was snowing (first real snow of the season!) and the roads in the farm were kind of icy. I fell. The shoes I grabbed while my mom was being all impatient with me are running shoes for the road. I thought they were my trail running shoes. Not so much. Look exactly the same except the tread. These have none. Dumb.

Other than that- I've done nothing productive today at all except a load of laundry and made dinner and did the dishes.

Tomorrow should prove to be more productive and interesting in general.

Day 11

I made some life plans last night. Big time.

Day 11 was Krista's 21st birthday. Kate and I "went to the game", which means we went to Manchester and saw a movie and I had a piece of a piece of the literally worst pizza I've ever eaten in my life and felt sick for the rest of the day, and then went to JTs and I stayed there for like... 3 hours drinking selter and then went to Vernon Lanes to go bowling (super fun- love bowling) and then back up to Stafford for drinks at Mun's. Considering how much time I spent at the bar Saturday (bar at the bowling alley too), it's funny that my total bar tab for the entire day was $20 and that included a bacardi and diet for Kate and a long island iced tea for Krista and a bud light that I bought for myself, but mysteriously disappeared (thanks Jason).

Can't you just feel the love?

Day 10

My mom's dog had mouth cancer- from all the chew- you know? Like the baseball players? Exactly like that- they had to remove half of his lower jaw and now it clicks all the time like he's chewing ice. It's an awful sound and makes me think twice about the eating of the ice.

Anyway- a lot of people have been asking my mom about him and so she wanted to send out a nice Christmas card featuring Willy. So... today's photoshoot will feature my mom's collie Willy with antlers. Later in the day I'll be headed back to Target to get the antlers for Aidan and Grace and since I probably won't be able to get them to sit nicely for the photo... work on photoshopping them into Willy's picture.

This is quite a little project for the novice. Just thought I'd keep you all posted.

P.S.- he doesn't look like he's missing half his lower jaw... He's still a good looking dog. Seems to be pretty happy too- when he's not "adjusting" his jaw.

P.P.S.- I got my hair cut again. I just wasn't happy with the length. So I called at 1:30 and got an appointment for 2:30 and the owner apologized for not being able to take me herself. Whatever! Thanks for taking me at all!

So this is the new length. It's a little shorter than I wanted, but I can still throw the sassy face with it, so whatever!

Day 9

Day 9...

Well it's noon. Last night I watched 4-5 episodes of House and 4-5 episodes of Grey's Anatomy to catch up. I haven't watched TV for quite some time- that kind of TV at least. Prior to leaving Stafford I was generally indisposed during prime time- chitchatting with the phone calls or at JTs or Melisa's or something... most of the shows I used to watch were DVRd so it didn't really matter if I couldn't watch them when they first aired... but now I don't have that luxury. or HBO. So I haven't watched True Blood or Heroes or anything else in a really long time. Been watching MSNBC at night.

SERIOUSLY. I watch MSNBC at night and want to wear heels. I bought a pair of jeans yesterday. I put them on and said- these would look better with heels. I found a pair of heels and put them on and I was right. Then I went online and went shoe shopping. I don't know what's happened to me. I didn't buy any shoes- I'll just stick with what I've got for the time being and see how that treats me. Even with the heels the jeans are too long. I normally get "tall" jeans, because normal isn't long enough... but this is a bit too much. I suppose I could get them altered- but... that'd be too grown up.

Oh- rambling. Sorry.

So... it's time to get the ass in gear and go to the gym. New policy is leave at 12:50 to get there for 1PM or so and watch days of our lives while on the arc trainer. I just tried the arc trainer yesterday... it's like Tony Little's Gazelle on crack. It changes the incline while you're going- like a treadmill... except the part where I didn't realize it was going to do that... good thing I was completely alone in the gym yesterday when that happened, because I burst out laughing.

This picture isn't the picture of the day... just something to prove I do own heels. I admit the only reason for that was to wear to weddings, job interviews and funerals... but whatever.

Day 8

Since I live with my mother at the moment (who hates her photo taken as much as I do) and my cat and her cat and her dog and that's it... it's easy for me to take pictures of the cats. I don't have another subject. Cats or Christmas trees.

Today was cats. Shooting into the sun.



He's very sick of the camera. He's also dusty, and I think the look in his eyes reflects the "please don't document my filth! let me clean myself first!" and then spends the next three days cleaning himself obsessively. at least nobody's told him he's fat lately... he literally goes bulimic for a few days after a weight comment.

I know I promise more interesting photos pretty much every day- but you know... that would involve a more interesting life I think.

Day 7

It was a beautiful sunset today... I took a bunch of shots trying to capture the bright colors- this is about as good as it got. I didn't alter the colors in photoshop, just used the vivid setting on the camera with the saturation and hue cranked up. The photo was more about the colors than the trees, but I can see now that they're a bit out of focus. The sun (obviously) had mostly set, so light was very low there in my yard. This is overlooking the christmas tree field next door.

I took some other pictures too... but now that I look at them, they're very grainy. Obviously I need to reset my camera and figure out why that's happening. Even with the low light, they shouldn't be that bad. It wasn't THAT dark.

I'll try again tomorrow.

Melisa's tinkering with her camera again. Yay!

Day 6

Cyber Monday. I spent $300 today. All on me. After that was done, I made two Christmas wreaths and went for a hike with my dad in Hampton. I also watched Days of Our Lives. And got fish and chips from Classic for dinner.

And didn't take a single picture. Not one.

Update (10:10PM)

Ok- so the first of the month will be my self portrait day I suppose. I took a crapload of pictures for a website to "yearbook myself"- so I took one of those and black and white-ed it and burned the edges. That's about it.



Oh- and if you click on the picture and look at the enlargement of my eye on the left- that's a brown line I have going through what is a mostly green eye. Darrell seemed slightly concerned about it when he noticed it a couple of days or weeks (I don't even remember) ago. After years of friendship.

Day 5

Went to Casa Mariachi last night- didn't take any pictures. However, Katie and Derek were talking about grad school and when people talk about grad school it makes me want to be back in school. Badly. I feel drawn to business- but don't really want a MBA. I should try to do a certificate in Project Management (BU has a good one- I sent away for the info) and transfer the credits to a Masters later if I so choose. However- it's a bit pricey for my unemployed ass. So I'm going to stick with trying to learn me some Photoshop and hopefully I'll have another job someday that will pay for my tuition.

It's been rainy/ sleeting all day. People are still buying Christmas trees though, so that's good! Determination!

So I took a couple pictures of the tree with the lights on it last night and they came out clearer than I wanted. I know that's weird... but I was late and didn't have time to fiddle with it either. I was on manual and I didn't use a flash and besides the lights from the tree, there's very little light out in the driveway.

This is the result (unedited):



Ok, actually the photo is complete crap. This one is way more exciting- it's the first one I took and was a complete accident and I couldn't even replicate it. That's how awesome I am.



Tomorrow I'll be much better about doing something that's not complete junk. I promise. I know these photos are crap. I know that. Honestly? At the moment, I just want to go back to my bed and watch my other movie. I just finished watching Baby Mama. Now I'm going to watch Run Fat Boy Run. It's got the guy from Shaun of the Dead (Simon Pegg). I'm looking forward to it.

As for the photo I've taken today... this is how I'm feeling about life:



"old".