day 3: merry christmas!!! :)

days in hk: 3

# of dimsum meals: 3

# of times someone has automatically spoken english to me: 2

# of holiday movies watched: 2 (deck the halls, the holiday)

yet another morning of dimsum with the family. then, as per tradition, went to the matinee performance of the nutcracker at the hong kong cultural centre.

had a super tasty dinner for grandma's birthday. mmm...many photos were taken, dishes were had, comas were induced.

happy 82nd birthday, grandma! :)

[sidenote: blogger, i really hate your blog formatting sometimes. it's messed up.]

day 2: recap.

days in hk: 2

# of dimsum meals: 2

# of times someone has automatically spoken english to me: 1

# of holiday movies watched: 2 (deck the halls, the holiday)

as a sidenote, i finally have a camera charger, so photos should be coming along with the next posts. :)

day 1: xmas break in hong kong.

# of dimsum meals: 1

# of times i've almost accidentally gotten into the wrong side of the car: 1

# of times someone has automatically spoken english to me: 1

# of weirdass christmas trees: 2 (1 toy story themed, 1 ferrero rocher themed)

this place is weird.

And The Preservation Award Goes To...

so i was going to do a recurring post off of last week's www idea. but then i realized two out of the three would be the same as last time. :P so that probably won't happen until i at least finish the distance between us.

news update.

we'll be moving back across (half of) the country, back to boston, in january/february. aaron will be leaving his job before then, and it just makes more sense for us to go back to boston since, at least for me, the job hunt here isn't working out too well. i'm nervous, excited and dreading the move all at the same time; pretty much for various, entirely separate parts of the move.

part of this move now means, that i have restarted my job search in the boston area. ugh. but i'm hoping that, this time around, things will work out for the better. part of this plan is that being a bigger city, with more architecture, more jobs and more historic architecture opportunities that i know the city actually cares about, i'll be able to find a position to take up and put an end to this unemployment streak.

as result of this step, i've recently taken up the new position of news contributor for urbdezine, an online architect, design, urban planning and historic preservation magazine. while not a paid position, it sounded super fun and exciting, and a way for me to get my voice out there in the architecture world, as well as educate myself more about the city that i hope to be working in and contributing to very soon. it's a relatively new web-zine, started by bill adams, a lawyer involved with land use and urban renewal in san diego, and it has slowly been growing and spreading to other cities in the country. most recently, this list of cities has expanded to include boston (check out the right-hand side of the page!) and new york. since i'll be moving back pretty soon, i have committed to contributing to the boston chapter, and have just had my first article put out there.

i've been super excited to get started, even while trying to work through all the glitches that the user website seems determined to throw in my way. (i have a couple of posts pending because the one button that allows me to add a photo to my article has somehow disappeared on me...) and while i have a strong interest in historic preservation, i'm making a solid attempt to post about news and events that are outside of that realm and touch on other parts of the architecture and design industry.

if there's anything you feel like spreading the word about, i'm still trying to get my feet off the ground and looking for new material to write about every day. :) and feel free to browse the articles from the rss feed on the right of this page (you may need to scroll down a bit).

Lowell's Boat Shop, 459 Main Street, Amesbury, MA

to read or not to read.

today's post is yet another one inspired by anna hong, who in turn took a page from MizB's book, because like anna, i went on a serious book shopping spree this summer and flew through each and every one of them, and now i'm only restraining myself due to unemployment and, therefore, lack of funding for books.
so here goes:

www wednesday #1 - to do this, all you have to do is answer the following three questions.

+ what are you currently reading?
the art of racing in the rain / garth stein
i actually started this book awhile back towards the tail end of the summer. then once summer ended, strangely so did my energy for leisurely reading all the time. but i've recently restarted it again and it's super enjoyable. it's definitely a good read if you're looking for a feel-good, story-telling, nicely-humbling novel. also along similar lines, if you've already read this one, is a dog's purpose / w. bruce cameron. a little cuter, a little less of a humbling tone, but similar idea and super cute.

+ what did you recently finish reading?
little bee / chris cleave
this was actually a little while back, near the end of summer/beginning of fall. (yea, that long ago.) but a good read. serious and, at times, a little dark. but still a good read. i will admit the ending could be considered a little unfulfilling, but it's definitely still a book i would recommend to anyone who asked.






+ what do you think you'll read next?
the distance between us / maggie o'farrell
i don't actually know much about this book. it's a recommendation from jess, and i'm trying to re-kickstart my book reading so i figured i'll give it a go. also, we've started doing this book trading thing where one of us will send the other a book as a recommendation to read, and when that person's done, they send it back with a book recommendation of their own. it seems like a good system, except that i have, unfortunately, been dropping the ball on my end and have had this book for awhile without having gotten to it because i've just really slowed down in my downtime reading. but i'm fixing it! :) my goal is to finish this by christmas.


if you have any book recommendations for me to add to my nicely-filling-up bookshelf, comment here!

it's a bird. it's a plane. no, it's just me.

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+ not too shabby. still need to hit two more continents (+ the middle east and central america/the caribbean).

i love travelling. i really do. though i must admit the flying part has very gradually lost its appeal. i'm pretty sure it's because of all the fifteen hour flights to and from hong kong every year for the past seven years (sometimes twice a year). i calculated at some point. with those trips alone, i clocked about 34,000 miles of flight every year. gross. so the whole joy of flying thing? kinda worn off by now.

but i still love travelling. 

everyone always says you should travel while you're young. which sounds fantastic. except for one tiny problem. when you're young, more than likely, you're also poor. right now, as a recent college graduate, this would be a perfect time to just travel before i find a job and settle down somewhere for a bit. unfortunately, it's not like four years of campus jobs is really going to pay for a trip, well, anywhere. boo. and when i finally do find a job that could possibly pay for my travel plans, it'll probably be a while before i can actually work up enough vacation days to make any trip worthwhile.

boo. life.

note: props to anna hong for this post. i took the map idea from her site. :) 

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+ not including drive-throughs.

p.s. i really hate coding sometimes...

another whirlwind adventure.

thursday, nov. 17^th, 2011.

my trip started at 7:45am when i was out and ready to catch the badgerbus to the milwaukee airport where i was to catch my flight to new york via cincinnati. this may have been one of the worst travel experiences of my life. okay. not really. but it wasn't good. everything was fine until i got to cincinnati. then, after sitting at the gate for over an hour, the gate agents announce that the plane is here, but there were a few minor issues that needed to be taken care of before we departed. okay. no problem. a half hour later, a few minor issues turned into, "um...we found an oil leak. it's something to do with the hydraulics, so...it's not good". okay...still not terrible. turns out, it didn't take them long to reroute all of the passengers with connecting flights from jfk and then find the remaining passengers another aircraft. at the other end of the terminal. so we haul ass over there, board, taxi out from the gate. only to then taxi back in five minutes later. cue, "sorry folks, we just found a small technical issue with our communications system". excuse me? so then began yet another hour-long wait while that got fixed. then finally, onward to new york. onward to whirlwind weekend adventure #2 with the j-twin.

i don't think i ended up getting into brooklyn until 10pm-ish (i was supposed to get in around 7-ish), which, considering my travels began at 7:45am that morning, wasn't fun. it really shouldn't take fourteen hours to get from madison, wi to brooklyn, ny. just saying.

anyhoo. met up with jess, and had a nice, late dinner at a japanese place, where we each got delicious dinner boxes with sushi. mmm...have i mentioned i love japanese food? Then, we turned in for the night and hung out at the apartment since j had an early morning the next day.

friday, nov. 18^th, 2011.

café regular.

my delicious (and pretty) latté. :)

jess worked the am, and left instructions to check out some really good coffee at cafe regular down the street. so i went and got myself a really good latte and hopped on the subway and wandered my way through ny to meet her at rockefeller center. since i figured i had time to kill, i got off the r a stop early and just decided to walk over. stopped in at bryant park along the way. they had their holiday stalls up so i meandered my way through. unfortunately, being unemployed and on a very tight budget, i had to refrain from getting anything. fortunately, being human, i had to eat at some point. om nom nom…enter my nutella + banana crêpe. mmm…i had actually wanted something savory, but it turns out i’m bad at turning down banana and chocolate wrapped in a delicious pancake.

mmm...crêpes...

setting up the rockefeller christmas tree!!

eventually, arrived at the rock and wandered some more through the nbc experience store, where i again mentally listed the things i wanted but probably shouldn’t get and/or don’t actually need without actually buying anything. found j-twin, and then made our way upstairs to check in and get our tickets to see late night with jimmy fallon LIVE. okay, so not going to lie, i’m not actually a huge fan of jimmy fallon, but these were free tickets to a live recorded show. in itself, pretty damn cool. and the show itself turned out to be pretty funny.

woohoo!!!

quick side note for anyone who watches 30 rock: remember that episode where kenneth has gotten fired, is working for another network and is in the process of sorting audience members for the live show in terms of attractiveness? yea, we were pretty sure that wasn’t too far from the truth. after getting seated (in the front of our section, btw!), we look around to realize that there seemed to be a strange coincidence where any audience member over the age of thirty seemed to be seated in the back half of the room. dude, what??

so, it turns out, “late night” with jimmy fallon meant that this show was actually being shot at 5:30pm in the afternoon. nice. long story short, michelle williams was there to promote her movie, my week with marilyn, which could be interesting; i’m not sure what i think about the casting, but we’ll see. alton brown came on to show everyone the correct technique to opening a bottle of champagne with a 15^th century french rapier, a replica of which he then gifted to jf. comedian iliza shlesinger (yep, had to look up how to spell her name) came on with a little stand up; she is hilarious. she brought her adorable puppy and did her own rendition of sarah mclachlan’s aspca commercial. musical guest, the roots (+ animal from the muppets), played an amazing show. jf himself? actually pretty funny in person. watched two random guys get covered in goops of all sorts (mostly perishable), and watched one of them win $200. the show ended on a high note, where i got to high five + shake hands with jimmy fallon. y’know, nbd.

the stage of the show isn’t all that big. and yet they find the space to maneuver five massive cameras around to get all the right shots. it was seriously an impressively well-oiled machine. having my only stage management experience being back in high school and being impressed with how that went, this was incredible to watch. i can only imagine the stress levels of the stage manager we watched work her way through the scenes, and when she turned to give instructions to the audience only to hope we’d respond in the way they needed. sick.

by the time we came out of the show, it was dinner time. i quickly bought a late show pint glass, which i would later leave at dinner by accident :P, and we headed back into brooklyn for dinner at the stone park café, a nice, schnazzy restaurant not too far from jess’ apartment. it was delicious. we shared a mussel appetizer to start (really fresh) and i had a fantastic salmon dish, while jess got squid ink tagliatelle. so good. no, really. so good, i forgot all about my souvenir pint glass i had set down on the floor by the window.

so ended another great day in nyc.

saturday, nov. 19^th, 2011.

slept in a little. woke up to meet anna to go to the smorgasburg market. breakfast pretty much consisted of any delicious eats we decided to taste while wandering around the market. meatballs, chicken wings, lamb burger, anchovies, asia dogs, oysters…so much goodness. retrospectively, i’m not sure my stomach agreed with my decisions. but, i regret nothing! we, then, made our way to union square where the holiday market had been set up. this led to more wandering and more “window-shopping”. we managed to lose anna at least twice, with each time resulting in her appearing with somehow more food. sliders the first time, and then belgian waffles the next; the latter of which was, again, delicious. i finally caved and bought my one big purchase of the trip, an orange, enviro-friendly tote by engage green, a global-warming-awareness company who makes a bunch of products out of recycled plastic bottles. it seemed pretty cool, and it was a good cause/idea. again, good decisions all around. it was either going to be the bag or a long-sleeved, hooded shirt that had a cute dog/cat face on the front and ears of said animal on the hood. adorable. or maybe it was a graphic t, which i decided i had too many of anyway. hmm…yea…it was that. now i actually do want that hoodie-shirt. damn.

omnomnom!

after the third market of my trip, we all headed to korea way for an early dinner before anna had to peace out back home. we went back to wonjo, though this time going with the nakji (octopus) bibimbop. mmm…so full. post-dinner, we wandered the gap down the street to work off the fullness. anna went home, and jess and i made our way to the movie theater. we had originally planned to watch the descendants, but being a new movie, it was completely sold out for that night. so we bought tickets ahead of time for sunday and then headed back to brooklyn to another movie theater to watch happy feet two in 3d. i had originally invited anna to see this with us, but afterwards realized it had probably been good that she couldn’t stay in the city too late since, being ocean-themed, it involved at least one giant whale scene. it would’ve ended poorly. it was entertaining, with significantly more adorable than the last one, more ridiculousness and more crazily unbelievable song choices. if you’re just looking for a funny, feel-good film, that would be the one to check out.

oh! can’t forget. we had some time to kill before the movie started, so we made our way to the brooklyn farmacy + soda fountain. it’s an old-school pharmacy that got turned into an ice cream place, but retained the old-schoolness of it. very vintage. very hipster. very brooklyn. again, more super delicious food. again, got way too full. again, i regret nothing! we had a peanut butter sundae of sorts. damn…

the before...

...and the after.

and so ended a very successful (and a little out of order) day three to my whirlwind weekend in nyc with j-twin.

sunday, nov. 20^th, 2011.

post yummy congee breakfast. :)

okay. so this day was kept light to counter the incredible foodfest we had had the day before. (my stomach was not agreeing with the sundae from the night before very well. though, it got over it.) we started it off with a very chinese-y breakfast of congee in chinatown. so simple, but so good. afterwards, we walked off breakfast by visiting the new (and old) phase(s) of the highline. there were definitely aspects of it i really enjoyed. and it’s most probably going to stay near the top of my list of places to keep going back to whenever i’m in ny. later on, we finally took advantage of starbucks’ buy-one-get-one offer for the weekend. had a light lunch before heading to our afternoon showing of the descendants. we were easily the youngest people in the audience. but despite that realization, the movie ended up being quite good. i had my doubts about certain members of the cast, but they ended up being quite unnecessary. the movie was enjoyable, and quite the contrast to happy feet two the day before. in comparison, if you’re looking for a mellow, serious drama with some surprising casting choices and appearances, this would be the movie for you. it’s got my thumbs-up.

me + j-twin on the highline.

new seating arrangement on the highline.

dinner was had at bareburger near nyu. omg. so good. this place offered all sorts of burgers, from beef to ostrich to bison to elk. ridonculous. again, so full. of delicious burger and a dessert of a peanut butter chocolate milkshake. mmm…

monday, nov. 21^st, 2011.

jess had work again, so i slept in a little before packing up, showering and then heading out to meet her for one more lunch before i headed to the airport and back to madison. i met her near her office, and we had a super easy lunch at an italian place. after lunch, it was time for me to make my way back to the airport via subway (an experience in itself), and get on my plane back to milwaukee to get picked up by B. the trip back was a lot calmer and less stressful than my trip there. thank god. only one minor hitch where i had to power-walk my way through the entire minneapolis airport, which by the way is a lot bigger than you’d think, because i had booked my connections unfortunately close together due to what was available to me at the time. but at least i knew it would happen ahead of time. it didn’t make the power-walking any easier, nor make my calves any less sore right after, but at least i had been expecting it.

sad, lonely, little dude on the runway...

overall, it was a seriously fantastic weekend and visit #2 to see jess in ny. got to go see some new sites, as well as revisit some old. i’m still very impressed with my own tackling of the new york subway system, with little to no instruction from j-twin. made it there and back in one piece, though probably back with significantly more poundage. :P

now, only twenty more days before i embark on the ridiculously-ever-so-long trip back to hong kong for christmas. i was hoping to bring B with me on this trip, but it looks like a separate, not-so-family-oriented trip may be the better option. it’ll happen. and it’ll be awesome when it does. i can’t wait.

a bunny named puppy.

who's my little cutie?? :)

stick it.

rewatching it.

i miss gymnastics.

le sigh.

p.s. this soundtrack is awesome.

mum's the word.

chrysanthemums

B got pretty flowers for our apartment. :)

badger state.

the state capitol at night

t'is the season.

mmmm....

well, according to starbucks, anyway. as of november 1st, the happy little red cups are back! after my first attempt to share the cheer fell through (although i did still get a peppermint mocha for my troubles), i have finally gotten my first red cup of the season with some delicious, piping hot caramel apple spice to fill and soothe my belly as it continues on its recovery from minor food poisoning. :)

so happy time! :D

cute.

so i had an idea for a post today, some time in the middle of the night when i woke up from the worst nightmare i've had in awhile. but then forgot it.

so here are some cute corgi halfers:

corgi/husky

corgi/basset hound

corgi/beagle

corgi/black lab

corgi/shiba inu

corgi/german shepherd

ba-friggin'-dorable. totally what i'm going to try for when my dreams for a graduation puppy happen. corgi mixed with almost anything. then i'm going to teach it the corgi flop.

more adorable corgi mixes here. i just chose a few of my favorites to post.

the gross, the hopeful and the adorable.

the gross.
yesterday, in my infinite wisdom, i managed to give myself minor food poisoning. so that wasn't fun. turns out, that pumpkin soup i made from scratch a little while back didn't keep as well as, well, anything. and this all had to happen about twenty minutes before i had to head out the door. so then i was just a mess of running around getting things ready so that i could leave and also running to the bathroom so i could throw up (with small breaks in between of standing/sitting/lying really still to see if i could calm my stomach down enough to leave. i finally got out and walked to andy's to borrow shaniqua to drive myself to the dchs for my volunteer orientation. for the first hour (of a three hour class), it was not good. i was very much regretting hauling myself out for it and wanted to bail. but after that, my stomach seemed to settle for the rest of the class. until i got back to andy's. on the walk back, my stomach decided to get a little more aggressive. then, when i got home, realized i'd puked up my only meal of the day and decided to try some light chicken noodle soup. apparently, bad idea. stomach got angry. i spent the rest of the evening lying on the couch miserable until i passed out into a gross-feeling nap. and then it was bedtime.

woke up this morning feeling significantly better, though not 100%, and thoroughly exhausted. i was tired enough and even after waking up, walking around, feeding puppy and, y'know, carrying on with my day, i still managed to pass out for another hour and a half completely by accident. decided to get out of the house. headed to starbucks for a nice, holiday peppermint mocha. which, by the way, didn't come in the signature red holiday cup! disappointing. vented to smingle, who's sitting in urban lab studio right now. hehehe. anyhoo. it's now 2:30pm. first meal of the day: an artisan breakfast sandwich. so far so good. no urges to get rid of it immediately.

still can't even think about that pumpkin soup without wanting to throw up. so i'm going to have to ask aaron to help me get rid of it so it doesn't bring back those gross feelings...ew.

vox populi vox dei | milwaukee county courthouse

the hopeful.
before that debacle with the gross happened, i had an interview at eppstein uhen architects at their milwaukee office in the morning. first off, it was my first time to milwaukee. and hey, it's nice. cute. kinda like a smaller, less schnazzy chicago. i took the badger bus there since i hadn't driven on the highway before (i only just started driving on the beltline) and wanted to see what the trip would be like before i did have to make that trip by car on my own. btw, not bad. i totally could have driven there and back perfectly fine. damn me and my habit to second guess myself. anyway, got to milwaukee. started walking my way over to where the office was located in the third ward. so here is my interpretation of the third ward. it's like a combination of pittsburgh's south side and the strip district. or how i initially put it to aaron, "like the south side, but less kitschy", if that makes sense. cute historic district with art galleries, stores and coffee shops, and a couple of architecture/consultant offices sprinkled around. it's nice. i could totally see myself working there. even with the commute from and back to madison every day. the commutes would suck, but the drive itself is actually kinda nice.

so the interview: the interviewer definitely made me nervous with the number of time he emphasized that it may take some time for them to judge their need for production people. but anyhoo. the interview was for a production role at the milwaukee office. it would essentially be taking architect drawings and sketches and developing them into more technically correct drawings in revit. it would be a temporary position. but all the same, i need a job. and he did mention that it was definitely a good thing that i would be willing to work in either their madison or milwaukee office. because their madison office is the newer, smaller one and they were looking to expand, hopefully soon. again, like all architecture, it would depend on the demand. but i would love a position with this company. the more i look into eua and talk to them and learn more about them, the more i really, really, really want to work for them. their portfolio looks awesome. they have plenty of projects that really speak to me and attract me to want to learn more and be a part of them. and now having been to their milwaukee office, i love their office. it just seems like a really fantastic place to be everyday for work. i really don't care that i'd have to commute for almost three hours everyday just to get between home and work. i'm really hoping that all came across in my interview, because i think i sometimes come across as super understated, which would be bad in this case. i want this job. so badly. i'm super excited about it. and really hope it can happen soon. i really want to be able to get moving on doing architectural work again. as stressed as i was in school, i still liked what i did. and very much want to be able to get going in doing it in a work environment. i would do anything. seriously.

fingers crossed. hard.

the adorable.
as i mentioned in the gross, i had been on my way out the door when the onset of disgusting hit. i had been scheduled for a volunteer orientation session at the dane county humane society beginning at 6pm. i've decided to take on more volunteer opportunities while simultaneously actively working on my job search.  so i hit the road, still feeling queasy. and after the trip this morning convincing me that i could totally make the drive to milwaukee, i was thinking really hard about jumping on the beltline to give it a shot. i was still iffy about it until the i headed out after being sick at home and realized i was already running late, and my longer route avoiding the beltline may not get me to the shelter in time. so i decided to suck it up, my nerves about getting on the beltline and the queasyness.

now for the actual adorable. i got selected to be a canine companion at the dchs! i'm super excited. since all my plans to get a graduation puppy when i moved out here got shot down by the fact that finding a dog-friendly apartment was near impossible, i was hoping to get back in interactions with some adorable pups until i could finally get my own again. now i can! i still have to schedule training with my coordinator, but the gist is that i get to volunteer multiple times a week to play with dogs and pups, take them for walks, socialize them and whatnot, and also just, in general, help out at the shelter with cleaning dog dishes and supplies and doing a little laundry. i'm okay with that. fair trade. i am super excited to get started. even though i'm starting out just as winter is about hit. whatever! puppies!!! :) hopefully i can do it for long enough so then get more experience and volunteer at a more advanced level or in more than just one area. :) so excited. :D

so that was my day yesterday, very much full of super ups and downs, excitement and terrible then more excitement. as long as i don't think of pumpkin soup for a loooooooong while, i think i'll definitely be able to chalk this one up as a positive. :)

nomalicious!

it's fried rice night! :)

sheep test.

went apple picking a little while back. door creek orchard also has a sheep farm. adorable.

wanted to test out posting from my phone via email. so here's a sheep.

baa.

since i could hold my head up high.

so it's been awhile since i last updated. mostly because, well, there hasn't been much to update. but here goes:

what's the same.
i'm still unemployed and actively job-searching. it's still eating away at my soul and will to keep doing it. i'm still playing ultimate. i still have a bunny who poops like a maniac on crazy pellet-inducing laxatives. i still want a kitty but am in no financially-sensible state to adopt one.

job searching.
economy has been messing with the job search, which makes it super unfortunate, but i'm doing as much volunteering as i can i guess. i'm volunteering coordinating winter workshops for the madison trust for historic preservation, while also building with habitat for humanity dane county/habitat young professionals every other weekend. i've also been in contact with nps lowell to discuss potentially doing some work for them remotely, but so far they're still working out their budget so see if that's even going to be a possibility. fingers crossed.

hot yoga.
i restarted doing hot yoga at the studio on willy st. there happened to be a groupon around the time i was trying to find a place to do some restorative, low-impact workout nearby so i jumped on the chance. its been great. i really love it there. the instructors are awesome. and its actually gotten me into practicing at home every morning too. unfortunately, my groupon deal is running out and, while they're offering a deal for groupon users for their first month of membership, i still can't afford it because a) i'm unemployed and can barely make rent anyway and b) the deal is only for the first month out of a three-month obligatory contract/commitment. boo. so i'm doing what i can for now and am crossing my fingers real hard that i'll find a job soon that a) i'll really like, b) will be able to support me financially and c) allow me to afford the things on my to-do list, ie. adopt a kitty, keep doing yoga and pay for my ultimate expenses.

fall league!
so since i last updated, summer league and the club season ended and fall league has both started and finished. aaron and i both played in two back-to-back leagues because we both realized that one game per night twice a week wasn't really enough, especially considering the club series had ended already. our early co-ed team, why did it have to be snakes, finished the season going 7-8 and trailing off at the end due to multiple injuries on the team, including myself. our night owl team, snake eyes, fared a little better by finished the season with a 9-9 record. we started out strong, hit a huge slump in the middle, but then locked it up and finished strong again by winning through playoffs to win the championship. :) we then went on to play the other division champions and won on universe to be big boy finals champions. and this was when we were missing toby and sarah, two significant assets to the team, and only having 3.5 women, as i was still coming off a sprained ankle and could only run at about 65%. all in all, a decent season. apparently it became snake eye's thing to only win close games. all of our playoff games went to universe. so our final plus-minus came out to a whopping +3. whoops.

visits!
aaron and i got to have a fun visit from corey + gail this past weekend. it was definitely good to see them an take them around madison. although, as we soon realized, there isn't all that much to take them around to, especially since their trip was under 48 hours long. :P turns out, the shorter the trip, the less we really want to spend  significant chunk of it sitting in a car to get places. saturday night was a lot of fun. dinner at graze with andy, jake, melissa, shultz, sarah and brando. then hanging out and wandering down state st to the chocolate shoppe. this probably wasn't the healthiest weekend, but it was a good one. :) can't wait for more visitors.

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so going through old posts, i realized i actually could post videos. and this one is too good to miss. the video is only really the first seconds, but i don't really have the capabilities to trim it right now.

andy decided to give aaron a ride. what would possibly go wrong?

smile and wave for the camera!

oh right. that. that's...bad...?

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etc.
other than that stuff, life has pretty much been the same. hanging out with mad udderburn folks. job searching. hanging out with B. more job searching. figuring out christmas vacation. figuring out a possible trip to ny to visit jess and anna. more job searching. preparing for my first madison winter. planning for my first madison thanksgiving (weird.).

just a little extra something.

from thisisindexed.com by jessica hagy

one more time WHOA!

so this post originally was supposed to be about how i finally got my madison public library card and borrowed my first book as a resident of madison, wi.

but no.

the madison public library system has got to be one of the most inefficient and uncooperative library systems i've ever encountered. seriously.

so i've been here for almost two and a half weeks now. but unfortunately, i can't actually apply for an official state id/license until i have proof of residency that goes back at least 30 days. that said, the public library will let you apply for a card, but they'll just have it mailed to your residence instead of just handing it to you over the counter then and there. i was okay with that, so i applied, gave them my address and went on my merry way to wait until that little piece of plastic would show up in my mailbox.

never happened.

two weeks later, still no library card.

"what's up with that?"

turns out, for some unknown reason, the card couldn't be delivered to my place. my name is on the mailbox, the address on the envelope is correct. how do i know this? it had gotten returned to the library in the mail and the man i was talking to at the counter was currently holding it and waving it in front of my face.

"can i have it?" (can i? can i have it? can i?...can i?)

nope. they still needed proof of residency. remember the part where i haven't been here for 30 days yet? yea. i explained as such and further explained that this is why i applied to have it mailed to me in the first place. i also walked out specifically to check on the damn card situation. library dude's solution. "we'll just hold on to it here until you bring in your proof of residency, 'kay?"...um...excuse me? you're holding it in your hand. so the usps screwed up and apparently don't know how to read a mailbox. my bad? not really. and seriously, i came back in person to ask where my damn library card was. okay, i get that its not proof, but it means i haven't bailed from the city. and as much as i want my library card to borrow books for free, i really can't picture any scenario where i would camp out in madison, wi (outside a library that isn't all that nice to begin with) for two weeks, just to pretend i live here, get a library card and then steal then shit and peace out of town with my vanload of stolen books. if that's your idea of plotting to steal shit to sell and get money to live on, i hate to tell you this, but you're doing it wrong. very, very wrong.

moral of the story: GIVE ME MY GODDAMN LIBRARY CARD.

let's just say that, at this moment in time, i'm not in any mood to head out yet again to wave my proof of residency in front of library dude's face to finally get handed my mail.

thirteen. fisheye.

my new toy! :)

 i've been scoping out lomography for awhile because i really love their stuff. i miss using film. experimenting with my images without knowing the outcome until i get the film roll in for developing. i settled on the fisheye2. i gotta say, i love it. i'm still trying out new things like color gels and the multi-exposure (mx) function, but it's all going really good. :) i'm super happy with some of the shots i've gotten so far.

the little humpty dumpty man sitting at the main entrance to the epic systems campus. i love the colors that came out with this one. the angle also worked out really well with this subject.

oh hai.

my first victim. hehehe. my adorable little puppybutt. sorry about the flash, but again, the colors and effects that came with it worked out well.

a little fun with multi-exposures out by the state capitol.

the state capitol.

the old orpheum theater on state st. i really love the angles in this shot. it was pretty much what i was imagining and hoping would happen.

yesss! an intersection along state st. coloring came out well. angle got all the composition elements i wanted, including the centralized capitol. even got a sunstar with flare in there. all-around happyface. :)

i had to get a little too close to these tracks for comfort.

i mostly took this shot for the content. the strong horizon line with train tracks contrasted with the manhole cover and the vertical towers on the left.

<3 sun stars and flares

the terrace above the front entrance to my apartment complex. the grid warped nicely. again, topped nicely with the sun effects. fave.

experimenting with color filters.

decided to try out some color filters, when a certain little bunny came exploring. this is definitely a favorite shot. and the color addition actually worked out decently. i've been trying other colors since, but this is one of the best.

self-portrait at my finest :)

just to see what all the fuss is about.

so puppy's taken up a new habit. licking rugs. for approximately five mins at a time. i blame reggie.

on the other end of things, apparently reggie has taken to standing in the middle of my old bedroom where puppy's pen used to be and whining. he misses the stinkyface. that is both adorable and a little sadface.

it'll be nice to go visit them after their move.

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oh yea. HAPPY JUNE, EVERYBODY! :)

i got gloss on my lips.

MY CLASS RING CAME TODAY!!!

it was actually a little on the early side, but hey, i'll take it. i'm really glad i chose the smaller, signet design without any stone on it. i like the symbol of it, but i don't need the bling. not to mention i have tiny-ass hands and fingers anyway (my class ring size was 4.5), so anything bigger than this would look absolutely ridiculous.

after five years, this was definitely worth the investment. it was also a graduation present from the parents. :)

it works.

pretty.