One week down...

I hadn't realized that it had been two weeks since I last posted! 

My one "off" week went pretty well.  I did prep work for class, but didn't feel quite prepared.  I'm teaching a 6-week class this summer.

Last week was my first week of teaching.  It was mixed.  I thought I had prepared enough material for three days of class.  Instead, I lectured all the way through Monday AND Tuesday's class material on Monday.  Monday night, I expanded what I had originally planned on being Wednesday's material, and taught that Tuesday.  It went very well, and I was very happy.  However, I was now out of class material.  I threw together a slide set for Wednesday.  It was a disaster.  The lecture not only was short (the class periods are 75 minutes, and I only taught for 50 minutes), but I found myself reading the slides off the screen!  It was the great faux pas of presenting:  never just read the slides!  Thursday, I redeemed myself slightly--the class was 60 minutes, and I was back to presenting, rather than reading.

My sleep schedule was wonky, too.  I would go to bed at midnight, wake up at 4 am to prepare for my 9:30 am class.  Then, in the afternoon, around 3 o'clock or so, I would go home and nap for 4 hours, wake up, continue preparing for class until around midnight....rinse, repeat.  I lost all sense of normal time.  I would wake up from my mid-day nap panicked, thinking I had slept through my class.  Things that happened earlier on the on the same day, I believed had happened the day before.  

And yet, it was a good week.  I had burned a penny-sized hole in my carpet (a story for another time).  I went to Lowe's, looking for a carpet sample so I could cut a plug out of the sample and patch my carpet.  Lowe's didn't have sample sections of carpet there, but they called the manufacturer, and had them sent me a carpet square directly--at no cost to me.  I love Lowe's. 

For carrying lunch, I bought a food storage container from the Rubbermaid "Premier" line.  As someone who had been using the disposable Ziplock food containers, the Rubbermaid was a revelation.  It was actually sturdy, and the plastic was glasslike in how clear it was.  I used it for carrying black bean soup (yes, the same soup I wrote about in my last post).    

I finished up my leather project!  Expect photos of the purse revitalization project in the near future. 

For school, I bought new shoes, and for my upcoming summer trips, I bought a new camera.  It's a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35.  To go with the new camera, I took out a book from the library: Photography: The art of composition by Bert Krages.  

I still plan on using my current pocket-sized camera for most of my shooting, simply because it is much easier to carry.  Plus, I'm never been much of a technical person when it came to photography.  I guess I've always seen it as an art, and not a science.  An interesting point made by the book--I've read the first two chapters--is that artists don't spend alot of time arguing about tools, their pencils and brushes, but it is not uncommon for photographers to spend countless hours arguing about which camera is best.  At some point I really do need to get into the whole technical side of the art--but right now, I'd like to figure out the art side fo the art.  I have to be able to see first, right? before I start trying to get a machine to copy what I see. 

The exercises in the book are supposed to teach one how to see objects as points, lines, and shapes, and is based on theory from Betty Edwards book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain".  The first exercise in Krages' book:  photographing still points: Rocks.  This means that in the next few weeks, expect to see photos of rocks on this blog.  (The section of photographing points ends with points in motion: birds in flight, and moving balls in a sports game.  I then graduate to the section of photographing lines, starting with still lines: Forks!  Rocks and forks, I can't wait!)  But I guess that's the point (ha, ha) of having a person photograph common objects--it forces a person to see things they normally overlook. 

Anyway, one week down for teaching.  Five more weeks to go.  This will be a short teaching week for me, since on Thursday there is an exam. 

Happy Pentecost!        

The penny remains.

Summer starts

Last week was the last week of the semester.  I turned in my last paper on Monday, and then I mostly took the rest of the week off.  I got a haircut, watched "How to Train Your Dragon" (my first current generation 3D movie), and did heaps of laundry, as I put away all my winter clothes and took out the spring wardrobe.

Of course, last week, it was sunny, with temperatures in the high 70's, low 80's.  Today, it's dark and rainy, and in the 40's.  I had to turn the heat on, again, and I'm dressed in layers.

I had high hopes going to see "How to Train Your Dragon."  I had spoken with several people, and read reviews, all with positive things to say, and who said that the 3D was well worth it.  I enjoyed the movie--it was a cute, feel-good, kids movie.  However, the 3D did not agree with me--I found it uncomfortable to view, and in the end, I had a mild headache.  I was a bit surprised, as I had thought that this new generation of 3D had fixed the problem of nausea and headaches that the old generation red-and-blue-glasses type of 3D had been known to cause.  It might have been due to the type of 3D--I believe the type used in my showing was XpandD, and not the polarized RealD glasses.  I do know that when I put the glasses on before the start of the show and was looking around the theater, I noticed that it made it look like the sconces were flickering.

I hadn't cooked in a long time.  On Friday I made a chicken pot pie, and a black bean soup.  The soup was black beans, diced onions, and chopped tomatoes and potatoes, with a chicken broth base.  I had completely forgotten how fun cooking could be.

Once again, it was based off a Dean Ornish recipe.  Next time, I will add corn.

The end of semesters are always times when I feel open to possibilities.  For the summer, I'm thinking of working on my photography more seriously.  I think I'm going to get a book on composition from the library, and see if I can't photograph along with the chapters of the book.  And maybe...start posting twice a week again.

I'll be teaching my first class the first summer session.  Next week will be spent preparing.  And then I start the week after that.  I hope all goes well.

The penny remains.