Atlas Shrugged Video Contest: “Lemonaid”

I think this video is just adorable. It’s by J. Charlotte Jarrett and Nathaniel Nauert. Among the Atlas Shrugged video contest entries, I think this one is the best. It’s cute, entertaining, and accessible to anyone. I think some Objectivists too often beat non-Objectivists over the head with lengthy quotes and abstract terms when talking about their values. Sometimes that’s ok, but I feel for most people you ned to start very concrete and close to their lives. I think this is a great video that succinctly gets across the virtues of productiveness, justice, pride, and integrity. It’s catches your attention and is a great lead-in for discussion. I wish there were more of this in Oist activism. I hope I can do similar kinds of work once I get rolling with video.

If you like the video, please vote for it. The viewer’s choice winner gets a free iPad with Ayn Rand’s works pre-loaded onto it. Voting is open till December 8 and you can vote once a day.

Music Monday: “I Don’t Know” by Lisa Hannigan

I absolutely love this song. I’ve damn near worn out the mix cd where I first heard it. I think it’s such a different type of love song, one about getting to know a person and loving them for who they are. I’ve had trouble with that in the past, and this song is a reminder of what proper love should be.

I also think Lisa Hannigan is splendid. I love the tambre of her voice and the quirkiness of the music. She seems cool in a relaxed, unforced kind of way.

Great Things from the Past Week

While I was away from my blog I was having a spectacular time. Here are some highlights from my break:

• Travis and Colleen’s wedding! There was dancing, amazing food, new people to meet, and all my friends were all prettied up! It was a beautiful event with a view of the skyline. After the reception we all went to a nearby bar and celebrated Jenn’s 40th birthday at midnight!
• My boyfriend visited from Texas. It was great to get some quality time with him. We watched a ton of movies, cooked, hung out with friends, and generally lounged about.
• I got to show off my apartment to my friends and we toasted with champagne. I can’t wait to whip the place into shape for more socializing. Game night!
• I cooked a paleo(ish) Thanksgiving dinner all by myself! I made duck, roasted grape tomatoes, and potatoes cooked in duck fat with Ben and Jerry’s for dessert. It was a nice little meal, given that it was just for two and I am working with limited kitchen ware. We ate everything in one go and I made stock with the leftover bones.
• Kelly had a small read aloud at her house. It was so much fun! There was a fire and drinks and I felt like we were in a modern day salon! I didn’t read, but Morgan and I did perform “Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer” in sign language. I hope to do it again soon.
• I got started on Christmas decorations. I love Christmas. It’s so sparkly and benevolent. I’m making my own decorations out of paper, yarn, and a few knick-knacks from the craft store. I’ll be sure to post more about that later.

I’m really excited about everything going on in my life at the moment. I’ve finally gotten past most of the yuckiness of trying secure a job and roof over my head. I’m back on my feet and working towards new goals for the future. (That’s another post to come.) All in all I am super happy and plan to continue kicking ass.

Blogging Break

I’m taking the week off from blogging as I have a visitor. And it’s Thanksgiving. Will be back next week.

For All the Nice Girls Out There

via The Girls with Glasses

P.S. I totally want to dress like them.

Homeschool Co-op Photos

A few photos I took last week at the homeschool co-op where I teach photography and American Sign Language.

 

What Inspired Me to Become an Art Model

For years I’d been tossing around the idea of being a figure model. Not because I loved art or wanted to contribute to the process or anything like that, but because I thought it would be a challenge. It seemed like posing nude in front of a bunch of strangers would be a hell of an experience and a challenge to gather the confidence to drop the robe. I never took the opportunity to model at college because I was afraid of running into my art friends. I occasionally thought about it when I moved to Atlanta, but it took a trip to the High Museum of Art to really get me planning.

Before going to the museum my interest in art had been peaked by Luc Travers, first by his talk on the art curriculum at the VandDamme Academy, then by his ebook, Touching the Art. In his book, the reader is presented with the following painting and was asked what their immediate reaction was.

Honestly, my immediate reaction was, “Wow! She looks just like me!” Not her face, but her body. It was the first time I had seen a woman with my same body type depicted in an artwork. I sure as hell didn’t see body types like that in magazines, movies, or on TV. As I browsed through more art I saw more and more woman with my shape, and damn were they beautiful!

Art modeling took on a whole new depth after seeing these paintings. I wanted to inspire a painting. I wanted to be beautiful and appreciated by someone with talent. I wanted light to radiate off me while I lounged about nude. I also realized I was a lot more marketable if these were the kinds of figures being depicted. While walking around the museum looking at the art and realizing I could be a part of all that, I decided to go for it. I sent out emails to some local artists the next day and was booked within a few weeks. I’ve been modeling pretty regularly since and I absolutely love it. I feel so beautiful and appreciate my shape a lot more. I look forward to working with more artists and to start modeling for what I hope will become my first finished painting!

100×100 Pixels of Pure Awesome

Remember when Myspace was all the rage in middle school and you spent hours perfecting your page with a cool background, graphics, music, and photos? While I’m glad Myspace is over, I do miss the icons it hosted. Remember those, icons? Little 100×100 pixel boxes that contained cute photos, phrases, and sometimes animations? I miss them. It was so much fun to look through the icons on somebody’s page and glean they’re personality from them. I enjoyed looking up the ones with Harry Potter jokes and laughing at the really melodramatic ones with emo lyrics. (Although looking back at some of my own make me cringe a bit from all the teenage angst and naivety.)

Anyways, I dug up some of my old favorites from my hard drive. Enjoy!

Capture the Moment or Live In It? When to Pick Up the Camera

I problem I frequently run into in photography is whether to shoot life events or not. I feel like I have two decisions: to focus on taking photos or to soak up the moment instead. I find it very hard to do both, and often feel guilty if I try to. (Guilty for not focusing on taking the best photos possible and also guilty for not immersing myself completely in the experience.) And afterwards I’m either left with great memories, but no tangible record or great photos, but no real experiences to go with them, other than the joys I had shooting. My shoot from last year’s PJ Valentine’s Day Party is an example. I had a blast running around the party creating different photos and playing with the light. But I don’t have specific memories of jokes or conversations from that night to pair with the photos. I just have the images.

I haven’t quite figured out the balance yet. I find it really difficult to just meander between shooting and living it up. If I’m going to do one of the other, I want to do it full out. (Because if I’m going to haul that big ass camera around, I better do something with it and do it damn well.)

Any other photographers out there face the same problem? Got any advice?

Music Monday: Blue Angel screen test by Marlene Dietrich

Bah. This is how I felt this weekend. Hopefully today will be much better.