Happy Halloween!

So Rochelle and I are in the activities committee in our ward, and we were responsible for mainly two things in our ward Halloween party: photos, and music. Both of which had us pretty well occupied. We set up a photo booth where people could come and take pictures with their Halloween costumes on. And when they didn't come to us, we went around the room and took candids. The music went alright. We wanted to use the speakers that were built into the room, but the only way to put input into them was using a big hookup that is typically used by old microphones. Well... I didn't have one of those. So we couldn't hook it up. So I went to Radioshack to see if they had one. Nope. By this time, it was about 20 minutes until the party started and I didn't have anything ready. So I went home and got the surround sound system that mom and dad gave us when they got their new system. That stuff is heavy and it meant a lot of trips back and forth between my apartment and the car, and then from the car to the church. And then setting all those wires up takes time, and by the time the sound system was playing its first notes, people were asking for their photo to be taken. Rochelle in the mean time had been setting up the backdrop for the photo. Thank goodness for her. Otherwise the photos would have been with a plain brown church wall in the background. So I started taking photos. And I enjoyed it. But the lighting wasn't great. So I got out my brand new super-duper flash, and attached it... and the pictures turned out worse. Dang! I haven't had a lot of practice with my flash, so I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong. I didn't have the luxury of messing with it too much because every photo I messed up, was a photo somebody wouldn't get. So I took it off, and used my camera's built in flash, and made sure to keep the subjects close enough to allow it to work. Well... after the line died down enough for me to mess with it... I discovered that the batteries were dead in the flash. It was flashing, just not very brightly. But once I got those new batteries in there... wow. It got bright. And what's better is that it could shoot clear across the room as long as I didn't have anything in the foreground. I didn't get to mess with the settings too much, but I discovered a couple of ways to alter the brightness of the flash while still in "auto" or "semi-auto" mode. But all and all I learned a good deal about my new toy, and didn't mess up more than a handful of photos, and those I took again later. It was fun. And you all can see the photos here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/taylors2004/wardhalloweenparty

Now, I have to say that not all of these photo's are mine. About half of the candid photos are photos Rochelle took with a little point and shoot. She was worried that her photos wouldn't turn out very well... but honestly, I think she does great. She doesn't care too much for the nitty gritty details of photography, but she enjoys it all the same. And she is getting quite good at it too. When we take portraits of people, she is an indispensable part of the process. She fixes the hair, gives me angle ideas, and suggestions on just about everything. And the photos always turn out much better when she is around. :-D

Happy Halloween all!

Mid Term

Well, as the title implies, we are nearly halfway through the semester! Woohoo! I just started my second round of midterms (3-4 rounds in a semester) and came out better than I expected- quite a pleasant surprise. I have been doing clinical at Utah State Hospital (the mental health hospital), which has been very interesting. The people who live there have been committed by the court because they have been through every other mental health program available, and they have been deemed a danger to themselves or others. Some have been there for many years, others stay only a few months. My heart truly goes out to those people. I would say that most of them know that they have a mental illness, although there are a few who really think that they don't have a problem. Some of them want to stay there, because they have no where else to go, but the majority are not happy to be there. There is a wide variety of different diagnoses. There are some interesting treatment groups that patients attend. I have been attending the Sunrise Program- a DR (dual recovery) group. This is a group for people with mental illness who also abuse substances (all types- prescription pills, alcohol, illegal drugs etc.). It is kind of like AA but less formal. Next week I am running a group with another student. It is a reality- based group (for all the patients, but especially those suffering from delusions) where we talk about concrete things in a reality shared by everyone. We are going to focus on "nice" things- nice things we have done for others, nice things that have been done for us, and positive memories etc. Clinical there is very interesting, but I don't think that I would choose to work there as an RN.
Today I attended the baby shower for my friend Laura whose baby was born 5 weeks early. I was pleased to learn that the baby girl (Ryan Rebekah) is doing just fine and she is at home now! I think most of the girls that attended the shower were pregnant or had babies/ toddlers. I was quite the minority! I enjoyed it though.
I don't really have anything else going on that I can think of other than getting ready to present in Washington D.C. in 2 weeks. We are mostly finished with one project- our poster presentation- and we are working on the other one- our round table discussion. I have a ton of work to do to get ready! That is probably what I will be doing in most of my spare time until I go(besides studying of course).

Happy Day

So, I have been intending on blogging again ever since my last blog, but just haven't got around to it until today.

So, I had another birthday. It happened nearly a week ago now. I am now 28 years old. I'm an old man. But my beautiful wife did her best to help me to enjoy the day anyways along with my parents, and in fact they made it a very nice day. We went to lunch at a nice place and had delicious food. Of course I still had to work and all, but a nice little lunch doesn't hurt. And then after work, Rochelle made shish-kabobs, and potatoes at my parents house. We also invited Marissa and Charles. We all had a good time. I got a bunch of new clothes and a nice flash for my camera. I have been very excited about the flash. I spent the next day taking pictures of random things. With every new attachment and every new photography gadget I get, I feel like I'm one step closer to my dream of having a bona fide photography studio. Taking photos in dark areas will no longer be such a challenge. It will be nice to have.

Charles got me a racquetball glove, one which helped me compete a little better against him today. Having a glove really does make a difference. It's nice. My old one had holes in it, and just didn't grip like it used to. Today we played four games, finishing up around 8:15 am. Charles took two games and I took two. They were pretty even games. It was fun, but I have been super tired today as a result. I am seriously out of shape, and am doing what I can to get back in shape. This seems to be a constant battle with me, to be getting in shape.

I finished a very strange book this week. I got it on Heidi's suggestion. It's called The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, by Douglas Adams. He's the same author who wrote Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, which I also read. Of the two, I thought Hitch-Hikers was better. But this was also very amusing. Adams has a very unique style that really does entertain. He writes things with a tinge (or a ton) of sarcasm. I have given up trying to figure out what he actually thinks about anything, because he tends to make fun of everything. Let me quote the first two paragraphs:

"It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produce the expression "As pretty as an airport.
"Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort. This ugliness arises because airports are full of people who are tired, cross, and have just discovered that their luggage has landed in Murmansk (Murmansk airport is the only known exception to this otherwise infallible rule), and architects have on the whole tried to reflect this in their designs."

I read this aloud to Rochelle and we were both laughing about it. The heroes in his books tend to be misfits with a fair amount of luck. They typically go from one scene to the next confused about where they are and what is going on around them. Many books have comic relief characters, but Adams uses those characters as the main characters. It's a good laugh. I like it. Heidi, thanks for the suggestion!

I don't think I can read too many of his books at once, but I imagine I will eventually get through most of them. I'm currently reading The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. While the book is certainly unique, and interesting, I'm not sure how much I like it yet. I'll let you know. There are so many books that I'd like to read. There are two more in the Alvin series by Card that I haven't read yet. The last one I just found out about. I didn't even know it existed. The next one is sitting next to me waiting for me to get to it. All of this, and I keep thinking... I need to start working on my gmat! Eek. Well, if nothing else, all this reading will help my reading speed during the gmat. I think that's the section I'm the most worried about. The math section will be difficult for sure. I'll definitely need to freshen up in that area, and learn some tricks for solving things quickly, but there is only so much I can do to increase my reading speed. Really, I just need to read a lot.

So, I started my own library today! Yup. And I expect each of you to do the same too. I'd like to see what books everyone else has read, and likes. You can see my library at: http://books.google.com/books?as_list=BDTmy-PEQueTij7_p09a-ARoU_DiA1rNo0Zl2-7Mw8G06_sb4ec8&hl=en

I have tried to put in many of the books that I have read recently in there and rate them and organize them a bit with tags, but I haven't written any reviews yet, nor have I put in all of the books I have read in... but I'm working on it. I believe the "My Library" part of Google Books is a new feature. It doesn't seem to be wholly refined yet. But I've actually looked for other things like this before and am glad to see that google is working on it. I've always wanted to have a family and friend book club, and I think this is a good way to go about it. What do you say? Are you interested in doing a book club everyone? All you need is a google account. And then you do a google book (http://books.google.com -- not a normal google search) search for books you have read, and click "add to my library". That starts your library. And then to get to your library, find the link on the top right that says "My Library". Go there, copy the address and give it to everyone you know, and invite them to do the same. Put the link on your blog! Once you are in "My Library" you can add tags like "Alvin Series" or "Not read yet" or whatever else you fancy. You can rate the books on a 5-star scale, and give them a review too. When you are all done, I'll make a web page with all of your libraries (unless you don't want to be on it) and I'll let you all see it. But you do need to make your library and share it with me! Consider it a late birthday present for me! Ok, that's all for my rant today.

Have a good day ya'all and I'll look forward to reading your reviews!

BJ's:
http://books.google.com/books?as_list=BDTmy-PEQueTij7_p09a-ARoU_DiA1rNo0Zl2-7Mw8G06_sb4ec8&hl=en

Rochelle's:
http://books.google.com/books?as_list=BDfuiR1cQ-8WeusXKt_6DARoU0TBaTquVjgRt9pN79r6f0bjBScs&lr=&sa=N&start=10