I just found out about Joshua and I had to come here. It just didn't seem real. I'm so devastated. I mean, I hadn't seen him or his brother in ages, but the ubiquity of social networking means that I'd been idly following along with their adventures and always getting the two mixed up in my head and inwardly being warmed at how close they were. It's such a shock-- it's always a shock when someone so young goes unexpectedly-- but it's more a shock because my (e:strip) world is such a cozy one, and I don't really have words for it.
My thoughts are with his brother, of course, and it's just made me think about so many things I can't bear to think about.
And I miss all you (e:strip)pers, and I miss that cozy little world, and I already miss him being in it, even if I could never tell him apart from his brother and was never quite sure which of them I'd spoken to. How horrible to have them so utterly separated-- how horrible to have his adventures cut short-- how unspeakably tragic-- and I just don't think there are words. Oh Jason. I am so sorry. I am so, so very sorry.
Dragonlady7's Journal
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03/08/2011 20:43 #53788
Oh my God07/22/2010 22:39 #52257
photo classes: Ideas needed!!Category: photos
So I work for Delaware Camera. Everybody knows that.
The regional manager just went to a trade show, and came home full of awesome ideas. About 5 years ago we used to offer classes and seminars and stuff, how to use your camera and how to take pictures of this or that etc. But the manager was the only one teaching them and he got really burnt out on them. (He actually has social anxieties, kinda, and it really took a lot out of him to do.) So we stopped doing them. But the show was all indie camera stores, and the successful ones all had a healthy class schedule; it's what sets us apart from the "I Dunno It Says Camera On The Box" big-box stores, where you buy a camera and can't figure out how to use it and bring it in and they stare at you like you're nuts for expecting them to have the slightest clue.
So we want to start having classes again. (I might teach some!! Squee!)
I'm wondering-- what classes would y'all attend? Are you interested in learning about photography and cameras? Have you ever wished you knew how to take that perfect picture of something? (If so, what?)
I was thinking a seminar on "How To Get Not-Totally-Shitty Pictures From Your Camera Phone" would be kinda neat, but the problem is, well, most camera phones suck, so the class would mostly consist of "Ok, so stand really really still, and preferably the thing you're photographing is really well-lit and not moving. Oh, it's dark and moving? Well, you're fucked." But still, it's an idea.
I hope you have better ones...
The regional manager just went to a trade show, and came home full of awesome ideas. About 5 years ago we used to offer classes and seminars and stuff, how to use your camera and how to take pictures of this or that etc. But the manager was the only one teaching them and he got really burnt out on them. (He actually has social anxieties, kinda, and it really took a lot out of him to do.) So we stopped doing them. But the show was all indie camera stores, and the successful ones all had a healthy class schedule; it's what sets us apart from the "I Dunno It Says Camera On The Box" big-box stores, where you buy a camera and can't figure out how to use it and bring it in and they stare at you like you're nuts for expecting them to have the slightest clue.
So we want to start having classes again. (I might teach some!! Squee!)
I'm wondering-- what classes would y'all attend? Are you interested in learning about photography and cameras? Have you ever wished you knew how to take that perfect picture of something? (If so, what?)
I was thinking a seminar on "How To Get Not-Totally-Shitty Pictures From Your Camera Phone" would be kinda neat, but the problem is, well, most camera phones suck, so the class would mostly consist of "Ok, so stand really really still, and preferably the thing you're photographing is really well-lit and not moving. Oh, it's dark and moving? Well, you're fucked." But still, it's an idea.
I hope you have better ones...
heidi - 07/29/10 14:30
I might take a class in composition. I'd like to learn to take pictures of stars, but this is not the appropriate location.
:::link:::
I might take a class in composition. I'd like to learn to take pictures of stars, but this is not the appropriate location.
:::link:::
metalpeter - 07/24/10 10:27
I have seen you Camera Classes advertised I think within the last year.
I think one of the problems is that you have two types of people who take photos
1. The Pro style cameras where you have light metters and exsposure time and all that good stuff. If you don't know that stuff but have that kind of camera could you teach that stuff to someone with out being like a photogrophy school?
2. The type of person I am is a Point and shoot. You know where the camera does everything.
A. Yes there are a lot of people who have no idea what is going on and classes would be a great help and even tips, and the basics would be a big help
b. I think where the problem comes in is often (or maybe just me) these camera all very so much. They have all different kinds of settings. I think when using these cameras what you do to get good pictures is learn the settings and learn what works. (yes knowing the background stuff might help this) .
--- A good example of this was I went to a Fashion Show (going to see stuff on stage tonight also) at club Diablo. There where models on stage. These pictures where tough because the lighting wasn't the same on the entire stag. With a flash stage was bright but a bottom corner of the picture had dark shadows. One part of the stage was fine without a flash so it was very tough, those models don't just stand there......
I don't really have any advice other then to say I wish you luck. I wish I had the skills to buy one of those SLR cameras. Not sure how I would feel about lugging one around though. Maybe the classes at the least could be aimed at people who want to move onto the nicer "Pro style" cameras I'm not really sure?
I have seen you Camera Classes advertised I think within the last year.
I think one of the problems is that you have two types of people who take photos
1. The Pro style cameras where you have light metters and exsposure time and all that good stuff. If you don't know that stuff but have that kind of camera could you teach that stuff to someone with out being like a photogrophy school?
2. The type of person I am is a Point and shoot. You know where the camera does everything.
A. Yes there are a lot of people who have no idea what is going on and classes would be a great help and even tips, and the basics would be a big help
b. I think where the problem comes in is often (or maybe just me) these camera all very so much. They have all different kinds of settings. I think when using these cameras what you do to get good pictures is learn the settings and learn what works. (yes knowing the background stuff might help this) .
--- A good example of this was I went to a Fashion Show (going to see stuff on stage tonight also) at club Diablo. There where models on stage. These pictures where tough because the lighting wasn't the same on the entire stag. With a flash stage was bright but a bottom corner of the picture had dark shadows. One part of the stage was fine without a flash so it was very tough, those models don't just stand there......
I don't really have any advice other then to say I wish you luck. I wish I had the skills to buy one of those SLR cameras. Not sure how I would feel about lugging one around though. Maybe the classes at the least could be aimed at people who want to move onto the nicer "Pro style" cameras I'm not really sure?
tinypliny - 07/22/10 23:04
Maybe you could go to the CEPA gallery SLR classes and see what kind of techniques they are offering? I hear the turnout to those classes is decent.
I just view good photos as the outcome of an expensive camera and a sense of art really - so apologies for not offering any direct non-slightly-underhand suggestions. :-)
Maybe you could go to the CEPA gallery SLR classes and see what kind of techniques they are offering? I hear the turnout to those classes is decent.
I just view good photos as the outcome of an expensive camera and a sense of art really - so apologies for not offering any direct non-slightly-underhand suggestions. :-)
06/22/2010 18:33 #52000
Stupidest sticker everCategory: mobl
Yes.
This.
This is the stupidest sticker ever.
I know you can't read it. That's why it's so fucking stupid.
dragonlady7 - 06/22/10 22:32
Guhh. Phone sort of fixed, we'll see. But that's the picture, which I risked life and limb to get.
Yeah I'm not done with the iPhone but I'm not a huge Apple fangirl either. I'm just glad other people are doing worthwhile things. For a very long time if you cared about things being cool but didn't have the patience to hand-craft it, you kinda had to go with Apple stuff. Now other organizations have kind of caught on to that whole concept, so I'm glad.
I just wish everyone in the world didn't have the same ringtone as me.
Guhh. Phone sort of fixed, we'll see. But that's the picture, which I risked life and limb to get.
Yeah I'm not done with the iPhone but I'm not a huge Apple fangirl either. I'm just glad other people are doing worthwhile things. For a very long time if you cared about things being cool but didn't have the patience to hand-craft it, you kinda had to go with Apple stuff. Now other organizations have kind of caught on to that whole concept, so I'm glad.
I just wish everyone in the world didn't have the same ringtone as me.
paul - 06/22/10 19:04
I take it the phone is fixed. If nit the moblogging experience on android is better. Maybe it was mother nature telling you to switch.
I take it the phone is fixed. If nit the moblogging experience on android is better. Maybe it was mother nature telling you to switch.
06/22/2010 17:39 #51999
d'awhI killed my iPhone. I don't know how. It's less than a year old. I saw the stupidest sticker ever on a car, and took its picture, risking life and limb I know, but I had to document it. I got to work, and emailed the picture here to moblog it.
Walked away leaving my phone on the counter to finish sending the email. Came back and looked on my computer to see whether the photo had uploaded. It hadn't. Picked up my phone to see if there was a reason why not.
Couldn't wake the phone.
Tried restarting it. Nothing. Tried hooking it up to the computer. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. It's totally dead. If I plug it into the computer, after about 3 minutes iTunes pops up a message saying that it could not communicate with the iPhoneTM because of an error reading the device.
Fuckers!
Anyway. So i'm non-moblogging, sans picture, the stupidest sticker I've ever seen.
You know those really stupid oval stickers, that have acronyms in them? They come from the EU, right, and you put your country code in them, right, only Americans for some reason think they're so cool that they need to have one for every possible thing. And they don't make any sense-- what the fuck does OBX stand for? What about SJCI? (I see stickers for both of those every day.) So since the codes don't mean anything, they have to defeat their whole purpose by writing, in tiny lettering, at the lower border of the sticker, what the cryptic acronym stands for.
Again, missing the point of the whole exercise.
(It was cool, for like, a second, in 1997, to have the country code sticker of a country you admired. I thought that was kind of neat. Between 8:15:36 and 8:15:37 am on November 13th, 1997. Really. Then I was like, "Actually that's kind of pretentious and stupid. Without even being at least arguably intelligence-requiring like some pretentious things are. So it's the worst of both worlds. Never mind, those things suck and they irritate me." And my opinion hasn't changed in over a decade. Even after having been to the European Union, where they make sense and are functional.)
So this was one of those stickers.
Know what it said?
"S". That's all it said. That was the acronym. One letter.
I was like, "What the fuck does S stand for?" Because it's not a country code. And guess what. This is English. A shit-ton of words start with S. It's one of the more common letters, in fact.
So I drove up a little closer.
Underneath, it said, and I'm not making this up,
"See Europe In A Volvo." Only in block caps, and tiny.
For fucking serious.
That is the dumbest thing I've ever seen in my whole life, I think. And I just had to share it with all of you.
I used to sort of think maybe Volvos were cool. Like, they're functional luxury cars. I can kind of dig that.
But now I've lost patience with them.
Also I think it's about time I stopped working in Williamsville, because people like that are my customers and really????? Ugh.
Walked away leaving my phone on the counter to finish sending the email. Came back and looked on my computer to see whether the photo had uploaded. It hadn't. Picked up my phone to see if there was a reason why not.
Couldn't wake the phone.
Tried restarting it. Nothing. Tried hooking it up to the computer. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. It's totally dead. If I plug it into the computer, after about 3 minutes iTunes pops up a message saying that it could not communicate with the iPhoneTM because of an error reading the device.
Fuckers!
Anyway. So i'm non-moblogging, sans picture, the stupidest sticker I've ever seen.
You know those really stupid oval stickers, that have acronyms in them? They come from the EU, right, and you put your country code in them, right, only Americans for some reason think they're so cool that they need to have one for every possible thing. And they don't make any sense-- what the fuck does OBX stand for? What about SJCI? (I see stickers for both of those every day.) So since the codes don't mean anything, they have to defeat their whole purpose by writing, in tiny lettering, at the lower border of the sticker, what the cryptic acronym stands for.
Again, missing the point of the whole exercise.
(It was cool, for like, a second, in 1997, to have the country code sticker of a country you admired. I thought that was kind of neat. Between 8:15:36 and 8:15:37 am on November 13th, 1997. Really. Then I was like, "Actually that's kind of pretentious and stupid. Without even being at least arguably intelligence-requiring like some pretentious things are. So it's the worst of both worlds. Never mind, those things suck and they irritate me." And my opinion hasn't changed in over a decade. Even after having been to the European Union, where they make sense and are functional.)
So this was one of those stickers.
Know what it said?
"S". That's all it said. That was the acronym. One letter.
I was like, "What the fuck does S stand for?" Because it's not a country code. And guess what. This is English. A shit-ton of words start with S. It's one of the more common letters, in fact.
So I drove up a little closer.
Underneath, it said, and I'm not making this up,
"See Europe In A Volvo." Only in block caps, and tiny.
For fucking serious.
That is the dumbest thing I've ever seen in my whole life, I think. And I just had to share it with all of you.
I used to sort of think maybe Volvos were cool. Like, they're functional luxury cars. I can kind of dig that.
But now I've lost patience with them.
Also I think it's about time I stopped working in Williamsville, because people like that are my customers and really????? Ugh.
jenks - 06/23/10 17:38
Yeah, I'm pretty much with you. Like I thought they were cool before they were cool. Now that they're 'cool', I'm way too cool to think they're cool anymore. ;)
I always thought they were 'euro' stickers too, like "IRL" or whatever. But then someone, my brother I think, said they're actually airport codes...
so he thinks he's pretty cool now because instead of having the "NPT" sticker for Newport, RI (that all the tourists have) he has one that says "UUU" which, apparently, is the airport code for newport's little tiny non-commercial airport.
Yeah, I'm pretty much with you. Like I thought they were cool before they were cool. Now that they're 'cool', I'm way too cool to think they're cool anymore. ;)
I always thought they were 'euro' stickers too, like "IRL" or whatever. But then someone, my brother I think, said they're actually airport codes...
so he thinks he's pretty cool now because instead of having the "NPT" sticker for Newport, RI (that all the tourists have) he has one that says "UUU" which, apparently, is the airport code for newport's little tiny non-commercial airport.
dragonlady7 - 06/23/10 10:53
I know what the abbreviations mean, because I read the explanations at the bottom of the sticker. I just think it's totally stupid, because the point is that it's an abbreviation of a universal thing that everyone knows what it is, so you can have a very simple sticker, but then you make one for every goddamn thing under the sun so you have to explain them-- it's like, the entire point is being missed.
If you're so proud of your neighborhood, why not have a sticker that says "Elmwood Village" on it? Or "Outer Banks, South Carolina"!
I stand by my assertion that these stickers are really dumb, and the one I saw yesterday is the dumbest. And then! I saw it again today! Bitch has my same commute! Argh!
I know what the abbreviations mean, because I read the explanations at the bottom of the sticker. I just think it's totally stupid, because the point is that it's an abbreviation of a universal thing that everyone knows what it is, so you can have a very simple sticker, but then you make one for every goddamn thing under the sun so you have to explain them-- it's like, the entire point is being missed.
If you're so proud of your neighborhood, why not have a sticker that says "Elmwood Village" on it? Or "Outer Banks, South Carolina"!
I stand by my assertion that these stickers are really dumb, and the one I saw yesterday is the dumbest. And then! I saw it again today! Bitch has my same commute! Argh!
vincent - 06/23/10 09:12
OBX = Outer Banks in North Carolina
It's not a suburban thing, there are tons of people with the EV sticker for the Elmwood Village.
Really at the end of the day it's just people showing civic pride for their neighborhood or vacation spot.
OBX = Outer Banks in North Carolina
It's not a suburban thing, there are tons of people with the EV sticker for the Elmwood Village.
Really at the end of the day it's just people showing civic pride for their neighborhood or vacation spot.
I will admit I had trouble telling them apart sometimes my self but I have had this same problem with other twins as well.... To Be honest I'm not sure when I first met Josh but back then to me at least Josh looked different but later on to me they looked more the same I know that sounds crazy so if Apart to me they looked the same but together you could tell whom was who and when talking you could tell them apart as well......... Of course what I said makes things no less shocking I can't Imagine losing a twin...... And someone that close.....
Agreeing with Carey
Well said and I share in your sentiment.
I am so heart sick.
Yes, it is like losing family though I haven't seen the twins in ages... My heart goes out to (e:Jason).
I feel bad about all the times I could have hung out in buffalo but did something else instead. Its so caviler to let the months then years slip by and miss seeing good people.