Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Liz with Lady Luck

If I seem bitter lately, I am. This past month has been quite the adventure. I found a buyer for my car but I can't find the title. Of course. So I print out the forms and head to the DMV. While there I realize the car is in Dan's name and I need the POA (power of attorney) which is at home. I go home and grab and return except now the line is way too long and I'll be late to class.

So today I return and as soon as I get the DMV, I realize I do not have my purse with me. Great. So I head back home and grab it.

Then I get to the counter and I need a lien release so I have to call the bank and wait for that. Well they didn't date it or sign it so I had to call them again.

But I finally got the title and I am ready to sell my car!

BUT it gets better. Last night I noticed all sorts of black specks all over the carpet. I was about to murder a cat since I vacuumed the day before. But I look closer and it is not stuffing from a toy, they are bugs. I call my terminator blubbering (because it's after 6pm and my brain turns off at night). Somehow he understands me and tells me it's probably termites because of the shape and it's swarming season. Great. There goes my the rest of the sale from my car.

In the big scheme of things, these are small. I've handled worse but it just seems that I can't catch a breather inbetween. I want to play the lottery because I can't possibly have this much bad luck without something good but I know better than to play with chance.

So next week the movers are coming and then just a few more weeks until I visit Dan and then just a few more weeks until exams are over and I move in with Dan in PA. I'm so excited to be with him but I am seriously going to miss the people I've met here.

Join me!

I'm trying 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Read more about it here. It starts April 6th and I realize this month will be tough for me since I have exams and I am moving but I'm going to try hard! Try with me!

-Liz

Saturday, March 28, 2009

During Dan's Deployment

Okay, he's not really deployed. But I like alliteration and couldn't think of a better word.

It's been awhile since I've updated. What has even happened since? Well, what HASN'T?!

Dan left for Rhode Island for two months and I opted to stay here and finish school instead of moving to PA and being bored while waiting for Dan. Besides, two months isn't too long, I am a strong independent woman right?

HA! I fell to putty. I had no idea how dependent and attached I was to Dan until he left. This absence has made me realize how much I took him for granted.

Since then I got my first speeding ticket. I was going 57 because I thought it was 60 but it was a speed trap and didn't realize it changed to 45. Oops!

I adopted a black cat from Dan's Aunts. I named him Davy and he bit Jack's butt. They are now in separate rooms. I love them both but I think it's in Jack's best interest if we allow another family to adopt Davy. It's heartbreaking. I feel like a bad kitty mommy. In the meantime, Jack is planning my death every time I clean his abscess and give him medicine while Davy cries to be let loose in the house. The good news is that since Dan is gone, Jack gave up on being a daddy's boy and now cuddles with me.

My biology class is killing me. I failed my midterm along with 98% of the class. I'm not even getting a 100% on my take home quizzes. I don't understand it!!! I should get every single question right if it's open book. I am so frustrated.

In the meantime, Dan and I found a house to rent in PA. It's not downtown like I would've liked but it is on a bus route and only 5 miles away from school so it should be fine. I'm really hoping they have some good grocery stores up there. I am going to miss Publix like whoa.

Monday I am selling my car to another Prelude lover! I am so stoked! I didn't want my car to go to any schmoe. She'll be going to someone who will appreciate her so I am glad. With some of the proceeds, I am going shopping! I am so stoked about spring and summer clothes right now. Then the rest of it will go to a moving emergency fund.

I have cruises on the brain again and really want to go on another one but the timing won't work this year. Dan said maybe next year and it may be an Eastern European one too!! I can wait a year if we go to Italy and Spain!

If you are military, Disney is doing a promotion for their parks, go check it out! It's very similiar to what Busch Gardens did a few years back. I'm not sure if we will go this year or not. I can't wait until Universal hops on the bandwagon. Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure were my favorite and Dan hasn't been yet.

Monday I have a research paper due for my English class and then the following Monday I have a research paper due for my History Class. I see Dan in three weeks and in a month are exams and then I leave for PA. I feel the fire under my feet but I still don't realize how much I am going to miss the people I've met here. I got a tiny glimpse of it at lunch yesterday but I pulled it together and will save it for when I leave.

In cleaning my office and looking for the title of my car, I got distracted and uploaded a bunch of photos to my facebook. Go check it out. If that isn't enough Liz for you, check out my twitter. I've been a bit twitter happy lately.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Frustrated!

My car overheated this morning. It sucks but it's my car karma. Last night I blocked in some asshole parked horizontally in three parking spots.

Plus it is inevitable that I get car problems when Dan is away. It happens every single time.

Luckily I have awesome friends here!! Miranda picked me up and dropped me off for class and Courtney offered her husband to translate car-speak for me. Thanks guys!

Car problems are not making me blow my top. It's my biology class. I am so frustrated. I failed my midterm as well as 98% of the class. From an informal survey the top grade was a 74.

If the teacher gave us the material and we blew it on our own, that would be something different but that's not what's going on here. My teacher is not prepared at all. He repeats the same information in classes and then skips whole sections to catch up on his "time-line".

His notes and lectures are barely indicative to the tests. The point value of tests and quizzes do not reflect his syllabus.

Now, I understand this is a college level course and I understand there is a lot of studying that has to happen outside of the classroom. That is not the problem. I see students making flashcards off the notes in lecture.

The problem is inconsistency. We can't learn or study if we don't have all the material.

He even confessed that he does not make the tests. He uses another teacher's test. He doesn't get the test until a few days before. How are we, as a class, supposed to score well if our teacher doesn't even teach the material on the test because he doesn't write it himself or get it until the last minute?!

Friday, March 6, 2009

A Time-Lapse Photography Project AND Tutorial

Last weekend instead of tackling my kitchen I was perusing the web and came across this site about 6 creative approaches to photography. I took a look since I haven't been growing as a photographer. It's pretty interesting. I especially loved the time-lapse photography of the baby playing: how adorable! Then I came across this site where a lady used time lapse photography to capture her cleaning the kitchen. What a terrific idea!

Instead of moping around on the Internet, I jumped up to do the same. I did a similar project when I first got my camera but it was about as boring as watching ice melt, which happened to be my subject :P

Here is my video. After the video will follow a tutorial so you can do the same!




This site was greatly helpful to me with putting together my project but I still feel the need to write my own tutorial on how I did it.

1) Figure out your subject matter

Since my husband's been away (Navy) my kitchen has gotten out of control so naturally it was a good subject for me. Pick something where the camera can be stationary and something that changes often but not too frequently so the camera can capture it adequately. Here is a great link for 12 creative examples.

2) Camera Settings

Every camera is different so check your trusty manual. I certainly did! I have a Canon Powershot S3IS (pictured left courtesy of letsgodigital.org)


2a) The Dreaded Math!!!

(I'm not good with numbers so I tried my best and then fudged it and went with that.)
This is where you need to figure out how many pictures you are taking and how long your session will be as well as the "wait time" between exposures. You don't want your camera continually taking photos. Otherwise I'd have 43,200 pictures and my memory card isn't that large!

This site helped a lot with the math but if you'd like more help, here's another one I found.

Total Film Time = 30 minutes (again some fudging)

This means how long will the project take. To clean the kitchen I estimated 30 minutes. (it was pretty messy).

Total (compressed) video time = 30 seconds

The videos here
last anywhere from 1 minute to 5 minutes. Use discretion here. I didn't think 5 minutes of watching me clean would be captivating so I kept it short to 30 sec to a minute tops. (more fudging)

For film, it's common knowledge that you get about 24fps, which is frames per second. So that means when you are watching a video, TV or a movie you are seeing 24 (very similar images) for every second. Video is many still images stitched together.

Convert total film time to sec.

30 minutes * 60 sec/min = 900 sec

Convert Total Video Time (in sec) to frames

30 sec * 24fps = 720 frames

Film Time/Video Time

900 sec / 720 frames = 1.25 sec wait between each shot.

(Again I fudged my numbers; it's a good thing I don't take care of the finances in my house.)

It turns out my camera can only shoot through intervals of minutes so I would have to capture an image every minute. This is where I gave up on math and just hoped for the best.

My Camera Settings

1) Power on (make sure it is on a manual setting like P, M, Av, Tv etc.. )
2) Menu
3) Scroll all the way down to Intervalometer and hit SET
4) Set Interval time and No. of Shots. (Mine has an interval range of 1 min to 60 min & No. of Shots 2-100
(Hit set to set or cancel to get out of here)

3) The fun part
When you are ready to start, maker sure your subject is ready and take the first shot. The camera will automatically power down. When the next interval approaches; it powers on, focuses and takes the next photo and will repeat until finished.


After some elbow grease, soap and the help of my camera, my project was finished, NOT. I had to put it together. Okay, great. How do I do that?

4) Turning it into a Video
If you have a Mac this step is easy. Use Quicktime Pro or iMovie. But since my pocketbook is empty I do not own a Mac, yet.

I ended up using Windows Movie Maker. It is free but equally frustrating as using Windows. If you deleted if off your computer, no fear, here is a link to download it for free.

Since I use a laptop with no mouse, I had problems manually adjusting the length of each photo. I wanted them to all show for a sec instead of a full minute for each photo. (That would be incredibly boring!)

I deleted my project (which did not delete my photos in a separate folder) and started over.

I found a program called JPGVideo from here. It's freeware which means a kind computer brainiac created this program and released it to the web for free. Be careful though, some freeware is created with malicious intent. Don't download anything untrustworthy; that's how you get a virus on your computer.

This program puts my pictures into a video with the configuration that would please me.

If you use this program these are the steps:
1) Go to Configure
2) JPEG Directory is where the pictures are. Click on the (...) icon. (This is where you tell the program to find the pictures.)
3) Click Output to find/create a folder to store your new video.
4) Configure the settings :
-Sort the files anyway you would like. I sorted mine alphabetically because my camera names the files alpha-numerically.
-For frames per second I did 2 per sec. It doesn't really matter what settings you choose as long as you keep a copy of the originals. Tweak with the settings until it looks like what you want.
5) After you are done configuring click OK. Then Run. It will put the pictures into a video so just wait a moment.
6) Hit close when you are done and the new video will be ready in your selected folder. You can view it with windows media player.

Now open up Windows Move Maker
Import Video
Import Music, import anything you want.
I played around here and made a few title screens and a credit screen. I wanted to give credit to the person that provided the music for free, yes FREE.

This article is a great resource about free sound.

When finished with the tweaks, save it and you are now a proud producer of your first time-lapse photography.

Give it a try and upload it online. Let me know, I'd love to see it!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

A morning startle!

I woke up this morning around 10. Not a big deal. I don't usually have classes until the afternoon. So this morning I was peacefully allowing myself to wake up when I suddenly realized that I have a Biology lab at 8am.

At this point it didn't even matter if I rushed to school because lab would be over at 11. I am super pissed at myself. Lab only meets once a week and usually very important in learning certain features of biology that I can't learn from a book.

I'm beating myself over it. How can I be so forgetful lately? I missed a Dr's appointment and I almost forgot my biology test on Tuesday. Then I realized I didn't have go to Wednesday classes yet. Because TODAY is Wednesday, not Thursday like I had thought.

Let me tell you what, that adrenaline rush is intense. Now I am sure to NOT miss lab tomorrow.

Monday, March 2, 2009

I never did get a cute picture of my haircut back in December so I got another haircut.. haha. Well I got a haircut because all I was doing was putting it in another ponytail. My hair is now too short to fit into a ponytail so now I have to style it which is what I was aiming for. Plus since Dan is away I can play with my hair a bit. It'll grow back by the time I see him again.

I had my week of moping around and now it's time to pick myself back up again. While I was browsing the internet, I came across a video of a lady cleaning her kitchen using time lapse photography. I was officially out of bowls and spoons so I had a project on my hands!

After I gathered the photos I put it together in a video with music and I am going to share it at the next photo meetup. I'll post it next week so I don't spoil it.

I think it's time for a nap :P