Wednesday, September 30, 2009

tacky halloween

Antioch, CA

Evidently one of my neighbors is trying to win the prize of tackiest halloween house on the block.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

the two of James I'll use

Pleasant Hill, CA

I need four shots for the homework assignment. These two my professor said would work for half of the assignment. However for other half of the assignment he suggested I go shoot a new roll.

Monday, September 28, 2009

cooling down and sprouting clouds.

Walnut Creek, CA

It was 100 on Saturday yet today it was all breezy and partly cloudy.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

shave needed

Antioch, CA

I need to shave. I'm all scruffy.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Riding for charity


Graton, CA

Today I rode for charity. It was the easiest ten miles of my life.

(BTC - Snapshots from the day)

Friday, September 25, 2009

we went out tonight

Vallejo, CA

8 of us went to see a movie tonight, then 4 others joined up for dinner. It was a good night with friends.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Shades of James

Pleasant Hill, CA

I developed the prints tonight of James. Each one of these shots is just a little different.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Dum Dum Irony

Oakley, CA

When I got to Lumpy's today my waitress tried to convince me I was going to have Vanilla or Cherry Coke. I was in a little bit of a grumpy mood (low on sleep) so I told her I was interested in my regular Coke. Well, when you get ready to leave there are these Dum Dums in a bowl that I think are free (I sure hope they are free. I take one everytime). I took one without looking. It was a Cherry Coke Dum Dum. It looks like she was right - I was having Cherry Coke today.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

I wish I could

Antioch, CA

It was 110 degrees today. After class it was still rather warm. I would have loved to go swimming.

Monday, September 21, 2009

sun dried tomatoes

Antioch, CA

I know plums become prunes and grapes become raisins. What do dried up tomatoes become?

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Dry Mouth??? But I already have that.

Antioch, CA

I started some new medication on Saturday. One of the side effects is dry mouth. grrr. I already get dry mouth now so now it will be more. How annoying.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

a rope jumping model

Walnut Creek, CA

I had to take some pictures for class that involved someone in motion. My first thought was of
was using James who used to be on a jump roping team.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Super Barack

Oakley, CA

One of my jobs at work is to keep the coloring pages stocked. Today I was looking for Hello Kitty and Spider-Man pages online when I ran across this one. He's in Healthcare, the war, student loans, ACORN investigations and now he is in Comic books. What a super hero!

(In case you can't read Spider-Man's bubble "Hey if you get to be on my cover can I be on the dollar bill?")

Thursday, September 17, 2009

developing

Pleasant Hill, CA

I developed my first roll of film this evening. I'm that much closer to being a real photographer.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Meatball Sandwich

Antioch, CA

I went to Lumpy's today for my weekly lunch adventure. Today my waitress suggested the Meatball Sandwich. It was so good. It had a sesame seed hot dog bun on the bottom, then meatballs (5 or 6) then spaghetti noodles, then sauce then cheese then some green stuff sprinkled on top. It was a whole lot better than the meatball sandwich I'm used to getting at Subway. Today I also added a Lumpy's label - which should make it easier to find pictures of Lumpy's food.

From the last few weeks

"Uncle Sean, She's a medium teacher." - My niece after I asked her if her new Kindergarden teacher was short or tall.

"You guys really jumped the gun. I'm not sure what I'm doing for the rest of the week, let alone for Thanksgiving." - my father in response to his girlfriend and I hammering out the plans for Thanksgiving.

"I used to live in Oakland, so I know what it sounded like." A student at Deer Valley explaining why she was a good witness to the high school shooting. Evidently being a former resident of Oakland is all the training you need.

"Duh Uncle Sean. I'm wearing an A's shirt right now." - My niece in response to my question if she still liked the Oakland A's. This conversation occured while talking on the phone - me in CA her in Wisconsin.

"As we crossed this time I still was curious but I didn't ask outloud." - John after returning from a trip to Utah from CA. Several years ago John and I crossed and as we were between Winnemucca and Battle Mountain John saw a trailer park/farm community. He asked me how they survived without a grocery store. I tried to explain that the farm was the grocery store.

"Do you think you can play with Barbies and fill out your time sheet at the same time?" - my boss. She walked into the therapy unit to me making the voice of one Barbie to the Barbie of one of our clients.

"Hey Pitcher - we're talking about beer here." One of the people in the stands at the ball game on Saturday. Each game there is a "beer batter" on the opposing team. If that batter strikes out - beer is half price for the next 15 minutes. The fan was trying to convince the pitcher to stop throwing balls. Evidently the pitcher heard. The stands were practically empty for the next 20 minutes.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

very important button

Pleasant Hill, CA

Monday, September 14, 2009

black and white from Edgley Pier

Crockett, CA

I took my new film and my new film camera out to Edgley Pier to photograph in black and white. With me as well was my digital. Don't have a clue how (or even if it will) the film will turn out but here is from the same spot on digital.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

New Medium

Antioch, CA

I'm shooting in film for the next few months for a class. I'm borrowing this baby from my dad.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

hey pitcher pitcher.

San Jose, CA

Amy, my Dad & I went to a baseball game this afternoon. Amy got to experience me being passionate about yelling at umpires.

Friday, September 11, 2009

A Palace by night


SF, CA

For our date tonight Amy asked if we could go on a walk. So we walked around the Marin Headlands and watched the sun set. Then we walked around the Palace of Fine Arts. After that I got a bit of courage and drove through SF to the Embarcodara where we took in the Bay Bridge and the Ferry Building. It was a pretty good evening.

Thinking outloud

In the course of any given week there are a million things that float through my head. A lot of it just comes and goes and so I don't worry too much about it. As this week concludes, though, there are about 5 things still floating through my head.

1. In Pirates of the Caribbean (the first and best one), was Elizabeth Swan immortal from the time she met Will Turner on the crossing from England up until the time the gold medallion is taken from her? According to the rules that were established in the movie - those that posses the stolen Aztec gold are incapable of dying.
1B. How did Boostrap die if he was also immortal (being a member of the original crew)?

2. I wonder if it is possible to have more filtered stories of heroic acts. Firefighters, police officers, and soldiers doing heroic things - with a filter that didn't dive into their personal lives. One of the things that annoys me about professional sports and dramatic TV (i.e. Rescue Me or ER or Third Watch) is that we know so much about the players and performers. (Plus, of course there is so little heroism showed in modern day sports.). I would just like to read and see often in the news or on TV the heroic acts of those we walk the streets with.

3. The Bible Dictionary states: "Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but are made conditional on us asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them."
On the one hand I look to God as being the great Santa. For several months i write letters to Santa asking for the new Star Wars Lego set. I tell him every time I see him at the mall (I even yell it from the second story out side Macy's "Hey Santa! It's Sean - we talked last week! Just wanted to remind you that I wanted the Millennium Falcon!")
However, come Christmas Morning I would get socks. Come January I would need the new warmer socks so I could play outside. His blessings were there despite my pleadings.
On the other hand I struggle with the point of prayer. If my will will never be granted and it is only His will that will be granted on his timeline - what is the point of me pleading with the Lord. If all I'm ever going to ask for is the things He won't give me and He won't give me things that I don't ask for - then really I'm never going to get out of this hole. The best way I can think of this is that He has Coke sitting there waiting for me - but if the only things I ever ask for is Pepsi, Rootbeer, Sprite or water - nothing will happen. He won't bless me with Coke because I didn't ask for it. He won't bless me with the others because that is not His will. And if it never occurs to me to ask for Coke we will never have a meeting of wills. Then what is the point to prayer but to guess what His will is?

4. What do you do with friends that aren't accepting to change? After 3 years of being apart from John, I returned to discover I had changed a lot, and so had he. We were different people - but we tried to keep the friendship going despite some glaring differences. One day while we were out grocery shopping I suggested Savemart and he was shocked. "I thought you said you would never shop there again." I asked when I said that. "5 years ago." was the response. I tried to relate that in that amount of time I have learned what is good and can get from Savemart. However, that experience has stood as an example of how people can change over time.
The reason this particular question has been in my head is because I'm in similar situation. Over the past 4 months I have grown closer to a friend. While I'm not the dog for her and she isn't the owner for me, right now we are good for each other. Over the last four months, a different friend has been away on an internship. She has not been around to watch as me and this other girl have grown tighter. At a recent event I was massaging the feet of the girl I've grown tighter with. Suddenly the girl who recently returned from her internship shouted out, "I thought you didn't massage feet! You told me you didn't massage feet!" Which is true. And 6 months earlier I didn't. But on that night, with that young lady, I did.
Since that time I've been worried about my friendship with my recently returned friend. In what other ways have I changed in the last 4 months that will cause discord in our friendship? Do I try to be the person I was 4 - 6 months ago or do I expect the friend to be adaptable.
With John it became clear that 3 years was just too long. We are still friends but much less than the friends we were when we were friends prior to my departure to the Lord's University in Idaho. I'm not sure I'm ready to see my friend of 4 months ago go the same way.

5. Josh just celebrated his 5 years of Photo A Day. On March 4th (or somewhere around there - never been all that good at math) I will celebrate my 1000th picture. I wonder if that is enough. In a recent post by Cindy about violin neglect, Cindy's Mom commented that there is a time and a season for all things. I wonder if 1000 pictures is a decent season.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

basket of apples

Oakley, CA

I'm working on getting the apples ready for September.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Mobile boob crusher

Oakley, CA

for all of your boob crushing needs.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

more from the art building

Pleasant Hill, CA

Monday, September 7, 2009

Armadillo grill


Reno, NV

On our way home today my father and I stopped in Reno to walk around. There was a competition bar b q festival going on. This was an Armadillo grill we saw.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Idaho at its best


Teton, ID

I spent last night at Steve's place I woke up to the horses in the field next to my bedroom window nie and naying.

(BTC - Scenes from Teton)
(BTC - Under the bridge in Twin)
(BTC - Base jumping video)

Saturday, September 5, 2009

the red one

Rexburg, ID

I never even knew this place existed when I went to school here.

(BTC - Welcome home)
(BTC - Around Campus)
(BTC - In the Garden)
(BTC - the Orchard)
(BTC - Craigos)

Friday, September 4, 2009

Just passing through

Battle Mountain, NV

(BTC)

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Not my move

Antioch, CA

Tonight we loaded the trailer with the last of Bill & Marsha's stuff. On Friday my dad and I will drive it out to Utah.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Two bridges

Vista Point, Solono County, Benicia, CA

Tonight I rode on the newly opened bike path on the Martinez-Benicia Bridge. It's a nice 6 mile trail that I will feel tomorrow. On the left is the George Miller Memorial Bridge. On the right is the refinished Martinez-Benicia Bridge. It was refinished from when it was like this.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Jenga Stress

Oakley, CA

One of the more stressful aspects of my job is playing Jenga with a particular competitive client. Being a former English and Sociology major and not an engineering major...never quite sure when those blocks are going to tip over.

(BTC - The Bear is back)