April 15, 2012

I felt like I was due for another post, so here you go.  The remarkably nice weather continued throughout March and into April.  Everything is freakishly green today (as it has been for the past few weeks) probably due to the 3 inches of rain we got yesterday.  The Red and White Spring game was cancelled due to the constant storming yesterday.  We even managed to have a tornado warning a little before midnight, which sent everyone running for the basement.  Fortunately, everything nasty was north of us, and we were only stuck down there for about 30 minutes.  I wish I had taken a few pics yesterday of the line of cars coming to campus in the pouring rain.  Considering the fact that the National Weather Service acted like the apocalypse was about to occur all day Friday and into Saturday, I don't think I would have bothered to drive to Lincoln for a glorified scrimmage....

Changes for Summer 2012

Well, the beginning of March has brought good news, but it's news that will change my summer plans for this blog.  I found out that I will be taking a slightly different job this summer.  Rather than my customary job as a CA, I will be a summer RA.  Due to the fact that I'm taking a rather nasty summer chemistry class, the RA job just seemed like the more reasonable option.  I can't imagine going to a five and a half hour chem lab after having worked a night shift.  That has nightmare written all over it.  The only disappointing thing is that the job switch will make the daily shots of Lincoln's skyline impossible.  The building I am moving to this summer is not a tall one, and I have no idea which direction my window will face.  Even if I had maintained my CA job, they switched to an adjacent building, and the chance that I would face downtown was slim. 

Though this saddens me a little (it was a fun little project, after all), I'm more than happy to try to get creative with this.  Rather than always doing the skyline from the same window, I might parking garage hop to get elevated shots of downtown or sunsets to post.  Besides sunsets/downtown shots, I may widen the focus to storms and all other campus or Lincoln photography.  In any case, if I want to continue with this little hobby, something will have to change.  This is also the first summer I'll have to experiment with my new DSLR camera in depth, so we'll see how it all goes. :)

Finally, I don't like to not include pictures with a post.  It weirds me out.  So, here are some random pics I've taken within the last month.  Since Christmas break I've used my camera pitifully small amount.  Mainly because the mild winter has given me nothing to photograph outdoors.  Sure, it's warm, but brown grass and no flowers isn't too attractive...

This is the only skyline I have to offer at the moment.  It was just a crappy little photo I snapped while visiting my friends in Omaha.  I must admit that it would be pretty cool to be able to photograph this skyline again (or better yet, a skyline of a "real" city.)

This isn't an outdoor shot at all, but I'm sharing it anyway...  My first "froyo".  We had coupons that required you to get up to $10 worth of toppings or frozen yogurt, and even then it was only $7.50-ish when I checked out.  I had to buy a water to get it up to $10.  Even about $2.50 short, this was the most obscenely unhealthy thing I have ever eaten...

This is another completely unrelated photo.  This one was taken with my DSLR.  I think the difference is obvious between this pic and the previous two, which were taken with my little Fujifilm point-and-shoot.  I can't wait until I have time to really experiment with my fancy DSLR and get used to all of the bells and whistles.

February 3, 2012

Welcome to February in Nebraska...this year, at least.  It is raining in the middle of winter.  Granted, it's happened before, and it's supposed to turn into snow overnight, but no one can deny that it's weird.  This little weather system is the first sign of winter weather we've had around here in a long time.  A few days ago, it was 70 degrees and everyone on campus was wearing shorts to staff.  It's bizarre, but it's the best winter we've had in a long time...  I can definitely live with having weather this warm in the dead of winter.

Anyway, other than the weird weather, there's not a ton to talk about.  I've mostly been really busy with RA responsibilities, getting used to all of my new classes, interviewing people/preparing to be interviewed, etc.  My health has been moderately crappy this month, unfortunately.  I spent the few weeks generally not feeling well (random flu/colds), and then last Saturday I fainted in the shower, split open my chin, and cracked a molar.  Good times.  Fortunately, the fainting seems to have been a freak thing (it was the first--and hopefully the last--time I have ever fainted), and the stitches were removed from my chin just a couple hours ago.  My tooth is still a work in progress, but it'll get fixed eventually. 

My main focus for the next couple weeks will be midterms, job interviews, and other school/work-related duties.  I haven't spent any time at all on photography recently, which is very disappointing, but there also hasn't been much to photograph.  I like nature photography, and nothing is green or particularly attractive at this point in the year, so I guess I'm not missing much...  Well, with any luck I'll be able to gradually start posting more often again.  We'll just have to see.

December 30, 2011

Well, I haven't had much for out-of-window shots recently.  My dorm view isn't spectacular, and there really hasn't been any kind of interesting weather to photograph.  In fact, it's been the mildest winter we've had in a long, long time thus far.  I'm on Christmas break right now (though it's nearly over), and we haven't had a single snowflake fall the entire time.  It's been in the 60's at times.  I'm certainly not complaining.  This is my kind of winter.

Anyway, just to post something, I thought I'd share a couple sunset photos from the Christmas on my mom's side of the family.  It was a really gorgeous sunset out on the farm.  It's one of the best I've ever seen to be honest...

December 3, 2011--First Real Snow

So, I know it's been a long time since I've posted here, but I've been ridiculously busy this semester with my RA job and with my classes.  Plus, the weather had been remarkably good up until today.  We've had incredibly high temperatures for this time of year.  Thanksgiving was last week, and it was in the 60's and 70's in most areas of Nebraska.  Unfortunately, I knew it was too good to last, and I woke up this morning to see this:

Revolting.  Absolutely revolting.  I am so not ready for winter.  Ugh, I guess the only good thing is that the crappy weather will force me to buckle down and get some studying done this weekend.  This has been a pretty rough semester for me due to difficult classes, crazy professors, and juggling my schoolwork with my RA responsibilities.  I have three cumulative finals coming up, and I need to go hardcore if I'm going to pull off A's in some of these classes.

Anyway, if the snow gets any worse (which I bet it will), I will post updates.  I've never had snow on this blog before, so I figure it's a nice change-up.

October 3, 2011

Well, I haven't posted here for quite some time, so I thought I'd thrown in a quick update.  What you're looking at above is near-sunset through my academic year window.  It was taken with my new--well, new  to me--Canon Rebel XSi.  I've only had a few days to mess around with it, so I'm still figuring out many of the settings.  However, I'm very pleased with the shots I've taken with it so far.  Manual is still a challenge, but I'll do some Googling to learn more about the settings.

Anyway, life has been busy.  Very busy.  Being an RA has been stressful at times, but now that school has kicked in, the residents themselves are easier to deal with.  It was party, party, party until the first round of tests sobered everybody.  I have some difficult classes.  My first round of tests didn't go as well as I wanted it to, but it wasn't disastrous.  Just gotta keep on truckin'...

I've also been going to Husker games, but I have East Stadium student tickets this year.  In other words, I have better seats.  After watching the Wisconsin vs. Nebraska game, though, I'm not sure how pleasant the remaining home games are going to be.  Anyway, I know this post is fairly random, but I felt obligated to keep this blog alive.  I have to go on duty rounds pretty quick, so I'll wrap this up for now!

September 2, 2011

Well, I haven't posted since the first day that people started moving in to this building.  That actually makes perfect sense now that I think about it.  Since people started flowing in, I have had precious little time for blogging or photography.  Fortunately, now I've settled into classes and gotten into a little more of a rhythm.  It wasn't easy at first...  After training and move-in ended, classes immediately started.  I've had some mischief on my floor these first couple weeks, and it was getting to me, so last weekend I ran home quick to relax before I had a nervous breakdown and killed someone.  Family time REALLY helped, and my second week of classes was considerably less stressful.  I didn't get to see my brother (it's harder to cross paths now that we're both in college), but I got to see my puppy and the rest of my family, so that was nice.  It's Labor Day Weekend, so my brother is actually home right now.  We'll be home at the same time eventually!

Anyway, to explain the picture, this is the sunset from tonight.  Right as the sun was going down, a nasty little red spot was heading towards Lincoln on radar from the west/southwest.  Shortly after this was taken, it absolutely POURED.  The wind blew, the rain was intense, and there was a ridiculous amount of lightning.  We were never in a warning, but it was enough to disrupt a lot of people's Friday night plans temporarily.  As for me, my Friday night plans have included making a Jeopardy game for a hall activity, painting my nails red with white polka dots (I'll explain why shortly), and watching the U.S. Open on television.  Everything is very Husker-y tonight: my nails, this tennis match, and the fact that tomorrow is gameday.  Roddick (from Nebraska) is playing Sock (an 18-year-old also from Nebraska).  Roddick just won, but Sock gave him a fight.

Well, that's really all!  I'm going to finish my nails and then probably go to bed.  I'm excited to go to the game tomorrow, but I'm not excited about the extremely strong chance of rain.  Yikes.  Hopefully we don't get rained out!