Philm

Just a little mini update.

My faithful negative folder has finally given in to wear-and-tear. I have since had to create a new one. But I guess it was fortunate, seeing as it forced me to go through my negatives for the first time in a long time. I have a lot of stuff I want to print in the coming weeks, so keep your eyes peeled.

Here's some that I took at a rank examination for Kendo last fall. I took my test (and passed), ran to my equipment bag, took out my Nikon, and shot a roll of Neopan to kill some time. I was quite happy with the results.


Any dust spots are from the scanner bed. The actual print's more or less spotless.


Ahhh...there's nothing quite like film. Digital's convenient, but there's a certain quality to black and white film that a photoshopped digital file lacks.

Eeeeeeeee :D

I'm like...swimming in a sea of happiness right now. Because of my stupid eardrums, I've been out of practicing any Kendo or Naginata for like...a good 3 months. But now that hot air no longer rushes out of my eardrums, I got to practice today! First okeiko of the year, baby. I'm sore, out of shape, and bruised, but I'm still pretty damn excited for practice again tomorrow night. Oh, and I took advantage of the two Big Macs for 3.50 deal. Kickass.

Oh, and I have a liter bottle of Arizona Green Tea. Yeah random story...but while my sister at UCSD, she called me one time saying that there was a guy walking around with a giant bottle of Arizona. Hehe she called to say that he reminded her of me. That made me laugh, and smile.

But now lets Tarantino this thing and go back to the beginning. We read through the lit books, learning about Petrarch and whatnot, when we stumbled upon these completely ridiculous instructions in our Lit books. I'm not even gonna explain them. Just read and see for yourself...


and this one...


Now, the Faith update. I got close to taking the picture that I had envisioned, except the lighting wasn't exactly optimal and she put her hand up. But then, I think that hand adds some humor to the picture.


Faith's painting: Day 3.


So it turns out that other people are repainting some of the windows outside the Art room, too. One was done in a day, the other seems interesting enough for me to follow like Faith's.

First one:


Second one:


And a moment in ASB. Teresa's been all flustered over the Class Council elections, so we've taken advantage of her absentmindedness. Observe.


Yeah, life's been a bit on the slow side lately. Lotsa little things to make me smile, but nothing overly epic. Maybe museum hopping will change that? Damn, I want to hurry up and go...

Just another day...

Nothing particularly interesting about this day, but some random fun stuff did happen. Like George's little happy face in Calc. Made me laugh.



Oh, sophomores XP



And then there was this teacher who I don't know. But he's wearing a driving cap and a messenger bag. He also has a copy of Midsummer Night's Dream in his hand. That's pretty awesome by my book.





Entertained ourselves in Bio today with an Ewok! It turns out that Burger King was giving these away as toys around when Episode III came out. They had watches too. If only I knew, my desk would be filled with stuffed Star Wars character goodness. Oh well.





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Once again, Faith was hard at work on her masterpiece. She's annoyingly camera shy >_< href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ello_there/3178871556/" title="IMG_3529 by andhong09, on Flickr">



I think it's coming along quite nicely! Day 2.





Someone from Yearbook was supposed to come and take pictures of the class presidents during ASB, but they kinda didn't. So I did instead. Alex, if you're reading this, one of you photographers got really lazy.





Hehe...my idea. Wish I had more time, though. Could definitely get better results with some more work.



Went to Jack's to get pizza. I lava pizza.





Eric's a fatty, sandwiching those slices together. I had two pictures of him - one with Canaan making a ridiculous face in the background, and one with Ashley. I went with the latter.





And here's another picture in my ongoing quest to snap embarrassing pictures of lotsa people for the Senior Slideshow. Success.



That's attractive.



Well yeah, so today wasn't all that exciting or overly interesting. There were simply some pictures that I felt like posting because I kinda liked them.



Oh oh oh! Going to the Getty this Sunday, and hopefully LACMA to check out the Vanity Fair bit again. Not gonna lie...I'm pretty excited.

Good Morning

I had the pleasure of waking up to the most brilliant morning sky in recent memory. Like, no joke. I walked outside, noticed that my world was tinted orange, like at sunset. Look to the skies, and what do I see? This.


Then of course I had to go to school, and my epic morning came to an end. For what it's worth, the sky stayed this way until I went to zero period.

But yeah, in Bio today, Sabrina made Team Nose Goes some lovely little goodies. Note: Jerek is really really dark.


It turns out that Faith is putting up some artwork outside the art room in the E-wing. My intention is to take a picture of it every single day until she finishes. I'm pretty excited, as I've always enjoyed her drawings and whatnot.


Then the first day of ASB for the New Year...of course something like this would happen...


I love that period.

After school, went to Wilson Burger to kill some time before CSF tutoring. I snapped these pictures of some cool kids eating then totally knocked out.


Ashley fails at eating ice cream XD


Endured a boring ass tutoring session, walked outside, and Sabrina found a particularly epic stick. Not sure why it's so epic, but I'll take her word for it.


Ugh. There's dust spots on my lens again. Pain in the ass.

And lastly, I want to share with you all a little detail in my life.I have a small lamp on my nightstand that I use when I'm studying or reading in bed and whatnot. It's also my source of lighting when I do some of my artsy fartsy pictures, as I'm a broke high school student who can't afford proper studio lighting. This lamp is very dear to my heart, now that I think about it. Well anyways, when I go out I usually forget to turn it off, leaving it to be the only light source in my room. When I get back home, it's always still on, almost as if it waited up for me. I bid it goodnight, turn it off, then drift off to sleep. I love lamp XD


I'm starting to appreciate the little things in life, which I've been taking for granted thus far. The more I think about them, the more the little things make me happy. And it works out quite well, because with so many details around me, it's pretty damn easy to be a happy kid.

Procrastinating

I don't want to write my Lit paper, so instead I'll share with you all a picture that I'm in love with.

I first saw it at the Vanity Fair Portrait exhibit at LACMA. While my eyes scanned the multitude of beautiful photographs around me, they just happened to rest on this one. I'm not sure what about it appealed to me at first, but the more I look at it, the more I love it.



It's the little things - the details. The way the light filters through the smoke as Noël Coward takes a slow drag. It's the white french cuffs showing past his jacket sleeves. It's how his torso fades into a black obscurity, how he sits there ever-so-relaxed under the scrutiny of a camera. It's the tilted vertical lines and the silhouette of a black cat above him. It's sartorial perfection, classiness, and effortless cool. It's Vanity Fair at its finest.

Ephesians 5:18

The first sermon of the New Year was creepily appropriate. It's like staring hard into a mirror, only to see your reflection shoot itself in the foot. You don't want to, but you do.

But enough of that. I actually managed the first portion of my last day of Winter Break (Saturday. I don't even count Sunday, since I'm doing homework all day).

Well, lemme backtrack one day. Nikki and Kylie stopped by to drop off some kick ass red velvet cupcakes for me and the older sister. It's the little things like this that make me feel all warm and fuzzy.


So Saturday. Last day of Winter Break. Spent the day at Santa Monica with the fambam. Hilarity and shopping ensued. I couldn't help but fall in love with this sign that is supposedly at the American Apparel store somewhere in New York.


We went to get breakfast at this place called The Victorian. The decor reminded me a lot of Tavern on the Green in Central Park. Very old school, very classy. I liked how the owner just walked around talking to people in casual clothes.

I had a meatloaf sandwich


and sweet potato fries for breakfast. Kick ass, huh?


Headed out to the Promenade, filled with ridiculously skilled street performers like this guy...


Shopped for a good portion of a day (well my sister did, not so much me) and watched Yes Man. Pretty entertaining, but nothing special. Oh, but I did manage to snap this picture of my parents holding hands. This'll pop up as a large print in the house someday. I can feel it.


The Promenade at night is beautiful. I'll prove it to you.


I actually managed to handhold this. No tripod. I surprised myself.


We went to eat dinner at the French restaurant called Anisette. If you get a chance, go there. It has an old saloon feel, with tarnished mirrors, aged wooden counters, and an antique staircase. Beautiful. This is place's wine collection. Impressive.


Had some fois gra with poached apple for an appetizer. Buttery, melt-in-your-mouth, overpriced goodness in every bite.


I had the Steak Tartare with Quail Egg. Mmm...salmonella AND e coli in one meal. Whatever. It was totally worth it.


Finished it off with beignets, amazing raspberry jam, and some espresso. Oh man, what a meal.


Then there was the rest of the day, when random stuff happened. But this is definitely the best part right here. Now off to write an essay without a prompt to write to...

2009.

So I woke up this morning and I realized that because I was doing Senior Historian crap all the time, I hadn't taken pictures just for fun. So guess what? Instead of sitting on my fat ass and whining about my loss of creativity, I took some pictures. I'm kinda happy with the results I suppose. Still nothing compared to my older stuff >_<

I found a large thing of velvet in my closet. Not sure why it was there...but it is now my new favorite background!

So yeah. It's finally my graduating year. No more Homecoming, no more ASB, no more of the life that I've lived for the past 4 years. Hmm. Thought a dead corsage was appropriate.


This old polaroid land camera was sitting in the photo room. No one knows how to use it around here, but it's old and looks kinda cool. It folds up too :D


Cola gets owned by Ramune. 'Nuff said.


and my favorite of the day. Because we all need a bit of love in our lives, right?


And that is my dose of artsy fartsy for a while. Felt good to exercise that muscle.