Shutter Happy

Not too long ago, Mom and I went to the Arboretum for a picnic. I took the camera and tripod in hopes of snapping a few shots. After lunch, I wandered around for nearly an hour happily clicking this and that. My one disappointment was that the waterfall was turned off (water is precious right now) and that was what I had particularly wanted to photograph. You see, as part of my fascination with the camera, I have been experimenting with shutter speed and aperture value--having no real idea what they do, what effects they create...etc. However, I did discover (by messing around) that slowing down the shutter speed lets more light into the picture: good for night shots, but bad for the day. Messing with aperture value appears to have the same effect, but...I don't know. (I really don't know what I'm doing; I just press buttons and see what happens.)

Since night shots show up well with a slower shutter speed (mine was set to 15 seconds) I am interested in taking more, and a greater variety, of them. What I really want to do is stand on a freeway overpass and get one of those cool National Geographic blur shots of traffic head/tail lights. Not quite sure Mom and Dad would approve...(grin)

Now for the specimens!

The picture that started it all:

What it really looked like!

...And with the 15 sec shutter


At the Arboretum:
Flowers

...and their visitors:

The Jacarandas were dressed to the nines


Trees by the lake


Miscellaneous:




The moon and stars:
...through a tree

...with Venus on the bottom left--just above the tree

Ursa Major (The Big Dipper)

La Luna

Presentación de Español

Whew! Finals are on the horizon. One of the things I dislike about the end of the semester is the number of projects and papers I'm required to complete. However, though some have been gotten through with clenched teeth, others have been a pleasure.

One such pleasurable project was for my Spanish 102 class. We were divided into groups and required to perform/film a commercial. Our group of 5 decided to spoof some ads for the LAC Fair. With a little twisting and tweaking here and there, we concocted a "preview" for an all new (we made it up) Reality TV Show: "BLEACHED" You guessed it, the theme is blondes--of the dumb variety.

Now I do want to add a disclaimer: While we were filming one of the scenes, I was just trying to read the script and push through my lines, so I didn't pay much attention to what I was supposed to actually be saying. Well, I discovered later that one of the lines that I repeat [a lot] means "oh my G _ _" which I was not very happy about, but it was too late to go back and re-film that scene. So, there is one vignette in which I am swearing in Spanish. Please understand that it was done unknowingly on my part, and I would have re-filmed it if I could.

(You may want to pause the music at the bottom of the page before you play the video.)

So, without further ado. . .BLEACHED




Addendum:
I meant to link to English clips that we based our film on. Check out the original Library, Blondestar, Shopping, and Farm clips. In addition, we did do a Cotton Candy scene that didn't make the final cut, but did make it to the bloopers.

Word Whimsy

As a linguistics major, I love word games. I've run into a couple recently that I thought I'd share here.

Let's begin with something to warm up your brain. . .
Example: DEAL --big deal

1. gesg

2.NiRENDEVOUSght

3. KNEE
LIGHT

4. HIJKLMNO

5. IECEXCEPT

6. It's a ALL world

Now try something a bit more challenging. . .

Example: 101 D --101 Dalmations

7. 26 L I T A

8. T 10 C

9. A T W I 80 D

10. 20,000 L U T S

11. 4 A 20 B B I A P

Even harder. . .

12. 206 B I T H B

13. S L T 8 M A 14 S T R T E

I really want to know if anybody gets this one:

14. 17 I T C R O 4913

The ultimate challenge is the following paragraph. This was given to me by a friend from work. It took me two hours to figure out, but I was determined to do it!

This is an unusual paragraph. I'm curious how quickly you can find out what is so unusual about it. It looks so plain you would think nothing was wrong with it! In fact, nothing is wrong with it! It is unusual though. Study it, and think about it, but you may not find anything odd. But if you work at it a bit, you might find out! Try to do so without any coaching!

I'll let y'all try for a bit before I give the answers. Ask for hints if you need them.

Good Luck!