The words I use the most

Many of us get in the habit of using words over and over again. Some of these words are slang, and some just made up amongst friends. I can't think of a word off the top of my head I use the most often, but instead sayings. Whenever struck by an exciting idea or story, an "OH My Gosh!" will randomly out burst from my lips. One of my friends since 2nd grade used this saying all the time, and I guessed it rubbed off on me. During the awkward middle school years, I insisted on not being a girly-girl and constantly used "dude", god knows where this came from and why saying it was going to make me cooler.... but whatever.  During high school, I had an excessive overuse with the saying "sweet" for everything from a cute dress to getting an A on a test. Now a days I use the typical southern saying "y'all", and somewhat betray my northern roots. I also use "Hay dios Mio", whenever the mood strikes for a little espanol. My hispanic side of the family refers to events as "doings", and I also have adopted that into my everyday dialect. When ever one of my friends has a blonde moment, the saying "yeah, ok Karen" always comes up, in reference to a dumb blonde character in the movie Mean Girls. Over all I would have to say that my language use it heavily influenced by the people and culture around me, and it has made me who I am today.

Picture Number 67: Bare

The reflection of a bare tress against a building wall seems pretty simple, but ended up looking very nice.   Some of my favorite pictures are those of trees without leaves. The twisted and scrambled branches look more like art work than a hibernating plant.

Picture Number 66: Mirror Image

This old antique Mirror and wall paper were so pretty that I caved in and did the cliche "picture in the mirror of my self", but I think the end result is pretty good.

Picture Number 65: Side Mirror

Being stuck in traffic is never fun... unless you've got a camera! I took this shot of the cars behind me, through the reflection of my car's side mirror, don't worry I wasn't driving at the time.

Picture Number 64: Mi Madre

Knowing how much I love to take pictures, my grammy asked me one day to take a picture of her; "you know incase I die and I'm not prepared, at least I'll have my 'death picture' all together" she explained. Laughingly, I agreed to take her "death picture" and now every time I take a picture of a family member, like this one of my mom, I giggle remembering grammy's request.  

Picture Number 63: Golf Ball 3

A look from a different angle clearly show the recognizable outside golfball shape, while the rest of the ball shows the, not so frequently seen, inside layer.

Picture Number 62: Golf Ball 2

A closer look at the old golf ball. Here you can see some of the bumpy outer layer that wouldn't come off, and the scuff marks on it from all the golf games of use.

Picture Number 61: Golf Ball 1

I found an old golf ball that had it's outside layer crumbling off. I started pulling off the layers to see how it looked without it's bumpy skin, and discovered it had a pretty golden color almost like an old water stained globe. I placed all the pieces on the counter and started taking pictures.

Picture Number 60: Urban Art

Side ways shot of a picture hanging in my room. I painted a strawberry, like the one in across the universe, and put a cut out of a magazine add on top of it.

Picture Number 59: Pups

My whole family is crazy about their dogs. My grandmother not only has pictures of her grandchildren scattered around the house, but also of our favorite furry friends. My dog Brewster is in the background watching Jojo Jr., my aunt and uncle's little puppy.

Picture Number 58: The Giving Tree

The outside walls of my high school were covered by a sort of mirror material. I took this picture of a tree reflected in it, the same tree that I stared at from outside my class room windows countless times during senior year.

Picture Number 57: Me

Trying to mimic a 1920-ish portrait, I took this picture of myself wearing a vintage hat. This picture along with the other 1920 photo shoot pictures were taken to make a make a vintage style magazine for a history class assignment.

Picture Number 56: Cold

One of my favorite restaurants in Illinois is this old malt shoppe that has been open since the victorian era. Almost all of the furnishings are antiques including this faucet.

Picture Number 55: Looking Out

This picture is part of the uptown photo shoot, being inspired by the style and culture of the 1920's.

Picture Number 54: Laundry Mat

My best friend's washer machine and dryer broke. She finally ran out of clean clothes before the machines were fixed, and decided to go looking for a laundry mat with me and all her clothes in toe. We ended up spending about 2 hours waiting for the clothes to clean and dry, and I ended up getting some pretty nice pictures in the process.

Picture Number 53: Two Tomatoes

Being very bored one day, I decided to take some pictures of produce that were sitting on the kitchen counter. I turned off the lights and used a lamp to create the lighting.

Picture Number 52: Piano

Taken during the photo shoot up town, this picture was meant to mimic the style of the 1920's.

Picture Number 51: The Plank

Depicting the a boat dock, I like how the wood grain stands out against the black lines that separate each plank of wood.

English 101 Assignment

       While watching "The Soprano's" for half an hour I noticed some interesting things. Whenever the commercials came on, they were twice as loud as the television show.  Commercials included weight loss programs, dating web sights, security systems, and law firms. Everything and anything imaginable is on TV these days, and I wonder how a show like the Soprano's made it to day time television. The commercials on TV promote consumerism. This sort of attitude makes me feel that it's hard for most people to appreciate what they have, when they are constantly buying new things to replace the old. Some times I wish we could return to ways of thinking from the past. I wish that it wasn't so easy to forget about the virtue of hard work. I wish that we could idolize the wisdom that comes with old age, instead of the superficiality of the quest for restored youth. For now I'm just a quiet voice in the crowd of society, but I do feel that eventually the "me generation" will give way to a new generation, focusing on the basic values that our Grandma used to teach us, and society will learn that family, inner beauty, true friendships, and hard work are really the recipe for happiness.

Picture Number 50: Endless Summer

I took this picture while on spring break, however it reminds me of the famous image for the surf movie "The Endless Summer".

Picture Number 49: Looking up

I took this picture of one of my friends while she was looking up to talk with someone. It reminds me of one of those glasses adds.

Picture Number 48: The Girl With the Pearl Necklace

Another picture from the photo shoot up town. This one was taken as the girl was walking through the doors of the theater.

Picture Number 47: Backpack

I used the natural lighting of the sun to take a picture of my backpack while boating. I was laying down tanning and doing some homework, when I looked next to me and realized it would make for a good picture.

Picture Number 46: Family Portrait

Some friends asked me to take pictures for their family Christmas card. I had a lot of fun doing a "photo shoot" with them, and we ended up getting some great shots.

Picture Number 45: King Neptune

This parking lot sign amongst electrical wires caught my attention while down by the beach.

Picture Number 44: The Lookout

The life guards on the beach pay extra attention to swimmers and surfers due to heavy rip currents. Its funny how they look like a bunch of prairie dogs on the lookout.

Picture Number 43: Waiting

The brides little brother waits for his sister to get all dressed up for her big day.

Picture Number 42: Oh My!

Another picture from the up-town photo shoot at the train station.

Picture Number 41: Come Sail Away

The tour group's sail boat awaits in the harbor as we climb the volcano in Santorini, Greece.

Picture Number 40: Copernicus Park

Copernicus park is covered in snow during the City's largest snow storm in years.

Picture Number 39: The Paparazzi

This was taken in the reflection of my high school building's windows, during my first photography class.

Picture Number 38: George's

I love this little barbershop on the main street of the town my Gramy and Gordo live in. There's nothing  more american than a small town barbershop.