A new thing

Continuing with the theme of photographic improvement, I’m going to start this new…thing. For the next month or two (possibly all the way until June 7th, probably just until I get tired of it) I’m going to make a point of taking & posting new photos. It’s easy for me to only take pictures at specific events or places, but being deliberate about shooting the “boring” everyday world around me will, I hope, help me improve. Stuff like cute kids and exotic locations shoots itself, so by saying I’ll semi-regularly be posting new stuff here I’m hoping to make myself work harder at this …thing.

Tomorrow is Sizdah bedar, the end of the Persian New Years’ celebration. It’s the 13th day of the year’s largest holiday, an auspicious day, the end of one era and the beginning of a new one. My family is pretty Americanized, but we still go through the motions of Norouz. An important aspect of the holiday is the Haftsin table, symbolically similar to the Christmas Tree. Every Haftsin table has some type of Sabzeh - growing green stuff - and ours is usually a tray of wheat grass. This morning I was watering that bit of grass when I decided to grab my camera & mess with DOF. This was the result.

Happy Holidays

I believe I missed Halloween this year, which is sad. Too many other things took precedence for a while (Sara missing Halloween is pretty much proof of real-life-overload, right?).

In any case, here’s my one seasonal offering. Technically I’ve been listening to them for a couple months, but it seems fitting to plug the group this week:

Diablo Swing Orchestra - Could be Nightwish’s bastard sibling, but they get groovy-ness points. Also, any band with a song titled “Balrog Boogie” is awesome by default.

Boo II: Electric Boogaloo

So this Halloween was actually pretty damn cool… except for the part where I remember why it is I don’t do the party-thing on weeknights anymore. It really started Monday night, because RHPS was teh awesomeness incarnate. I completely didn’t expect much from the student showing — but I was more than happily proved wrong. Rock.

For those of you not abused by a Certain Person’s album updates on Facebook (stop tagging me, yo!), costume of the day was Death from the Sandman comics…also known as oh-crap, didn’t-get-a-costume-together-in-time, pull-a-stereotype-from-the-closet. It was fun, anyhow, regardless of the fact that apparently nobody in Auburn has read Gaiman. Silly people.

Dumbfuck complaint department: why the heck is it so hard to pronounce Samhain correctly? Why no, actually, there wasn’t anyone named Sam, and his last name was not Hane.

Final link of the season: headinjurytheater - Halloween goodies. 13 Mystery Monsters: how many can you name?

Boo.

You thought you’d get away this year, with no Hallowe’en-y post-o’-goodness from Sara? Sorry.

So requisite wallpaper of the season: found here. Runner up: BRB?
Edit to add: As much as I hate to admit it, I actually find the newly-covered Nightmare tracks growing on me - so I suppose they merit a mention as well.

And random student-related rant story thing…
In case you haven’t caught on, apart from my individual students, I also have a group class once a week: this is actually in the building of a certain area church, and in return certain church-y conventions are occasionally imposed. Fair enough, and as a rule students and teachers alike are free to abide as they please.

During the intermission between class hours, there’s a combination food-and-announcement type thing, where classes mingle and talk and all that jazz. This week, there were handouts and a special presentation on…
TEH EVALS OF HALLOWEEN.
…along with requisite misinformed propoganda. I kid you not, the phrase “High Holiday of Satan” actually is printed, in black and white. What the crap, people.

So anyhow. Needless to say I had fun with all my individual lessons yesterday and today — and you know, how else are you going to learn the vital cultural details if your American Friend doesn’t tell you? Light on = ZOMG CANDAY RUSH. Light off = GO AWAY CRAZY PERSONS. Simple, yet important.

One final seasonal word: anyone in the Auburn area want to go to Rocky Horror with me Monday night? Seriously. You all are a bunch of lame freaks. Minus the freak bit.