Track 35: Reluctant Inspiration

Okay, fine. Snow is pretty.

Track 34: !@#$%&

Are you KIDDING me?!?!?!?!

Track 33: Happy Saturday

A pretty flower, just for you.

Track 32: My Dream Job

Today I got my second issue of NEED Magazine. For all you fellow do-gooders out there, NEED is published right here in Minneapolis, and their tagline is, "We are not out to save the world, but to tell the stories of those who are." If they don't have some kind of photography internship presently, you can bet I'm going to approach them about creating one when I'm at that point in my course work. I look at the list of contributors and visualize my picture and bio right there with the others. Listen to this guy's write-up: "Brown is currently self-employed as a freelance photographer in the field of human rights and social justice. His main goal is to educate and motivate the public to become involved in the issues that face us all, whether in our homes and communities or the planet earth, as our global community." Hello? Replace his name with mine, and there you have it. He inadvertently helped me define my goal.

Speaking of human rights and social justice, has anyone seen The Last King of Scotland? I'll be honest, I rented that movie partly because I have a huge crush on James McAvoy (the other, do-gooder part of me was actually really interested in the story of Idi Amin), but seeing him hang from the ceiling with huge hooks through his skin kind of dampened my amorous feelings. Temporarily, of course. He's still the best thing about Atonement.

Track 31: Fickleness

Yes, I change my mind a lot. How could you tell?

I am now obsessed with Polaroid cameras, thanks to this girl's blog. I think I may give up digital and go back to film. I just got back my first roll of film shot with my roommate's Minolta Autocord twin lens reflex camera. I feel like a Serious Photographer as I hold the camera at waist-level and compose the shot through the top (image in reverse, no less). In contrast, they now make a Holga for 35mm film. I'm sure I'll have one within the next month, because I'm a sucker for a cheap plastic camera.

Track 30: Wherefore Art Thou, Spring?

I seem to be on a once-a-month kick, huh? When your dad suggests that you use your spring break to update your blog, you know that it's been too long. 

The last three weeks have been a blur of work and school. There were definitely moments of exhaustion when I wondered what I'd gotten myself into. But, thankfully, the knowledge that spring break was just around the corner kept me going. Homework got done, I didn't miss a shift at either job (I did miss some t'ai chi chih practices, but some things just had to fall to the bottom of the priority list), and here I am, caught up on sleep (well, almost) and looking forward to having some free time this week.

As a bonus, tonight I met with my book club. If you've never belonged to a book club, I highly recommend it. Almost four years ago, a group of women with whom I worked at Habitat decided to start one. I seriously remember the discussion in the lunch room, but I don't remember how we came to call ourselves the Minnesota Mafia. Anyway, all but one of the ten or so women have now moved on to other jobs, but I love getting together with them every month to catch up, gossip about Habitat news (it's a hard habit to break), and talk about books. Tonight's gathering was especially goofy, culminating in a discussion about eating a frozen pizza that may or may not have been covered in the glass from an exploded toaster oven window. I guess you had to be there.

As a result of all this busy-ness, my note card project got put on hold. But it'll happen! I promise! It's too cool of an idea not to pursue. Here's the gist: people e-mail me things that make them happy (i.e., a cup of Earl Gray tea, or daisies, or puppies...you get the idea), I make a photograph illustrating the Happy Thing, I post them to a blog that I've already set up, and I turn the whole thing into a line of note cards. I'm calling it the Happy List Project. On the blog and on the back of the cards, I'll give a shout-out to the person (first name and last initial only) to the person who sent in the suggestion. I'll also put the e-mail address on the back of the card, so that whoever buys or receives the card can send me their own suggestions. The idea is that I get people to think more about the things that make them happy, therefore (hopefully) brightening their day and helping them to appreciate the little things in life that make us smile. Pretty cool, no? I'm really excited to get going, but it's going to take some time. Hopefully, I'll send out a "call for entries" soon, and then I'll be off and running with my camera.

First, though, I'm working on setting up a simple website for my photography. I've got a Flickr page, but I'd like something more professional. It's going to be REALLY basic to start out with -- probably a template from iWeb or something, but it's better than nothing. 

Other news:

1. The old iBook blew up (not literally), so now I'm working on a shiny new MacBook Pro. I think my favorite thing about it is Photo Booth, where I can take pictures of myself like this:

2. This photo of mine, taken last fall in upstate NY when I was visiting the Stevens clan, was chosen to be part of a show of student and assistant work:

And I got a certificate to prove it! Witness: