RyanHarne.com

There are a handful of significant deadlines and tests happening this week and I have, thus far, managed to keep my head well above water. But, I have skimped on sleep in order to nudge myself along. I feel like I am telling the commonplace university student tale.

I was doing some work in the quieter ABP this morning and many people I know would walk by after getting their order and say hello since I wasn’t scouting the line, but far more entranced in my project. A friend from Newman, Deana, said hey and I looked up and returned the greeting. She mentioned that she had said hello several times in the prior handful of minutes and I apologized for being so wholly wooed by my assignment.

She then said that she had to go because she was, “going to Russia”. I replied, “Oh, where are you flying out of?” I got back a quizzical look from her, then she said, “No, I’m going to Russian… class.”

Later that afternoon, she found me and pointed out something even I didn’t notice. “I like how you didn’t even question my departure”, as if it’s no big deal to just take a retreat to Moscow right before finals.

Well above water. But just a pinch exhausted.

Anyone who is anyone knows that I am in love with the Get A Mac ads. Anyone who dares stop by my place will likely end up seeing at least one, more if you don’t retreat in fear.

The simple humor, easy character formations, the non-intense approach to advertising - factors like these add up to a type of commercial advertising that I can actually digest.

I simply adore “Gift Exchange“. And may be watching it one dozen or more times within the next handful of minutes. No embarassment present.

I was excited to dive into Adobe Lightroom when I picked up my XTi since iPhoto had yet to support my camera’s RAW file types. The excursion through professional-like territory was exciting, even though the greatest amount of editing I ever did with files was the occasional exposure adjustment just to see what was possible.

Then Lightroom was rebranded. Adobe© Photoshop© Lightroom™. Photoshop? Before we know it, the entire suite will be called Adobe© Photoshop © Creative Suite™. Lame. But not enough that I would walk away disgusted with this background knowledge.

Then, I realized that Lightroom is a beta and that it expires in early 2007. Then, iPhoto announced support for my camera and other latest releases. I start to feel a conflict of interest surfacing.

And today, I am dropping Lightroom from my hard drive. I simply don’t use it apart from organizing photos - why relocate RAW files to another program when I could just as easily implement them into a grand photo collection that iPhoto fluidly manages?

I’m somewhat disappointed that Lightroom wasn’t more effective for me and somewhat disappointed that I didn’t make any more use of it. However, the integration of files is important to me, more so than having another third-party application taking space on my machine. I am also against filling up computers with third-party applications unless they are regularly used. Maybe I have a healthy relationship with the delete button.

Rest In Peace, Adobe© Photoshop© Lightroom™ Photoshop© Photoshop©©™™.

Happy Thanksgiving. I am thankful for a grande yacht-load of people and fortunate events. I hope everyone is taking a bit out of their schedule to relax and enjoy special sugary foods before the chaotic cavalcades rush towards their consumerist culture consummation.

In the meanwhile, enjoy this relaxing rendition of “Hey Ya” by Mat Weddle. I am thankful to Adam for the link.

Even though two days of segmented writing for a term paper have just whizzed by, I suddenly feel motivated to jot something down here. Without any particular effort, it seems that I am always the one who ends up spending too long on class-wide assignments. But I understand the effect of presentation and I take my work from TextEdit straight into Pages where I use my alchemic magic and rapidly evolve my rubble into diamonds. Works every time.

Also, thanks go out to my espresso machine for pulling overtime with this assignment. You are aging magnificently. Our cooperation will ensure many years of mutual success to come.

This is, of course, Virginia Tech’s week long Thanksgiving Break that I am persevering through. Apart from an unexpectedly long lapse of laziness yesterday, I have pushed from assignment to assignment, only pausing for more espresso or unrelated reading. My stamina is partially to blame on all of the pleasant sleep I have accumulated in the past three days or so. Eliminating required course/meeting attendance from my schedule is a huge relief and my sleep has been deep and fulfilling.

I am satisfied with this term paper. If I get back a positive score, I may post it here. Otherwise, this will be yet another incomplete tale. For the moment, I need some more mental rest before rushing back to work. Thank you, Mr. Coffee.

Avid about photography? Yes. It’s addictive - a thousand times more so with digital cameras. I actually loathed cameras prior to purchasing my powerhouse Canon 3.2MP point-and-shoot four years ago. Film was tedious, prints were easy to fingerprint-up and expensive in comparison, the mechanical nature was simply painful. At least for someone like me with no prior 35mm experience.

Digital cameras make people go nuts. At a family reunion? A cute baby starts smiling and four of ten people look for their wallet-sized soul-stealer. Even though I was not apparently alive during “the day”, it seemed to be that only the photographically nerdy had cameras for those special moments. Now, not-so-special-and-possibly-trash-bin-worthy moments are captured in 200 & 400 & 800 “speed” film.

The advantage to this, though, is that our memories are sharpened. Events are recalled with finely-pixelated clarity and get togethers are enhanced with the good times of the past. My iPhoto starts at a few hundred shots, 70% of which are great photos. Then I cross the 2,500 mark where 40% are shots I wouldn’t mind framing. Then 5,000 and 10%. And 10,000 & 2%. Finally, I breech 15,000 and consider hiring someone to go through the collection to mass-erase the quantum chaos.

Yet, still, my memory is clearer. Those moments, though blurred by lack of focus or underexposed by someone blocking the flash, piece together a beautiful and singular series of moments. If I hang out with friends for two hours, given certain circumstances, an easy 200 photos could result (thank you, Compact Flash II) that, as a whole, organize themselves into an array of thousand-word memories. The trade-off of letting the photos do the remembering for me while I endure an overly stressful and potentially overbearing workload at school & work which saps my extracurricular memory - the trade-off is arguable.

Can you tell? I just went through a bunch of photos, young and old. It was worth it.