Eggs anyone?

so... a third of the world is living in poverty and tons of kids are dying of starvation. But here in Canada, kids take perfectly good eggs and decide to chuck them at your house - for fun. Yay. Happy hallowe'en. Now I have to get the mop.

treading through complacency

We all live by some sort of moral standard, a guide, some sort of code of ethics. We live by what we understand. Our actions are results of what we truly are impressed and influenced by. A lot of times, for a lot of us, there is an incongruence between what we say we believe and what our actions actually play out in our life. To say that we believe something, that we *like* a certain type of teaching or standard, and to say we understand it - yet our life is a poor reflection of that - I would say is the ultimate failure.

Success should be measured by our social and spiritual graces - our ability to relate to and love others, and ultimately our ability to express where that motivation comes from. True understanding of what we strive to follow is only successful when it is lived out in full expression. And that translation from understanding it to living it out is only possible through transformation.

I would encourage everyone to understand something powerful enough that it will transform you into a person of action and result. Anything less than that will lack in power and all the work will be left on your shoulders. And we all know how lazy we are. True impact on the world happens through authentic transformation which happens from understanding the purest form of Truth.

Our quest for spiritual awakening is not one to appease our fears and soothe our sadness - it is one of transformation and change. Anything less than God, in my experience as a seeker, is one of defeat and dead ends. Tapping into transformation and change happens with nothing less than the extraordinary. And for that, you'll need a little more than a fun hobby or a comfy Sunday morning service.

10 different ways to light a potato

Reading Week at school is more of a figure of speech. For us it meant no class - tons of assignments and all day and night to shoot. I've never done as much shooting back to back as I have done in the past 5 days. It's actually been the highlight of photography school since I've started (minus not seeing much of the students... I miss them!).

I've learned a few note-worthy things:

- the sky is an expanse worthy of more look ups than it gets from us.
- birds are extremely hard to photograph in mid-flight, in focus
- you can make a potato look romantic in the just the right light
- take the time to stop on the side of the road if you're feeling "it"
- you can say a lot about a person by adding more of their environment rather than cropping in for portraits
- the Red River smells like fish. Day and night.
- check the weather
- don't be scared to ask people if you can take pictures of them or their things
- photographing can be like dancing
- there are huge highs, and huge lows. Stop when you have to, go when you're on fire
- always, always, always bring your tripod
- don't forget to put the camera down and enjoy the people around you
- a lot of self-reflection can be done whether you're on a busy street or in a secluded field
- without sight, none of this would happen. Appreciate what you see and that you can.

my appreciation of art (continues)

Went to see the documentary, "The Rape of Europa" last night. Astonishing! I'm not a big history fan, and as much as I wish I were, I don't know much about European art either... but after watching this documentary, I have a much deeper appreciation for it! Now I wish that I would have paid more attention to the art around me when I was at the Louvres and in Florence. This documentary accentuated the worth of these works of art - not in monetary value but in some sort of spiritual value. The closing comments in the documentary went along the lines of "Humanity needs art. Without art, we are not human." I think art reflects something about the spirituality in all of us. As God, the Artist of the world around us, we reflect some of his truth as we create art. And without art, I think we forget who we really are, and we lose some of our identity. The works that have been created and cherished in the history of art are reflections of a much deeper force that course through all of us. Without art, our meaning and purpose is extinguished.

defaced again

garbage garbage garbage! What is wrong with people on facebook? Are they being transformed by this enormous fad?! People have too much time to waste - creating pointless groups, adding ridiculous applications, playing idiotic games - petting each other's pets??!!

I'm back on facebook, I'm ashamed to say... but it's JUST to keep tabs on my out-of-province friends. Otherwise, I feel like I would never hear from them or be available to them. I feel so dirty for being back on facebook. I have set all my settings to the most private they could be - but there's still some disgrace to being a face in The Book.

ack.

magic in the dark

Photography school is getting increasingly interesting. I'm learning more than I realized there was to learn, and every day I'm finding out how little I know or how much more experience I want to gain. I couldn't be in a better place - full time, at a great photography school, with all the time in the world to apply myself to it. No wonder this is costing so much and requiring so much sacrifice!

This week I made a print from one of my negatives in the dark room for the first time. It's such a magical experience! I can't wait to do more in the dark room! But they're moving us along at baby steps, so that everyone has a chance to catch up. *sigh* Organized school and big classes. I never could get used to it.