alot.
i really do. a good pen is a real instrument. and very useful. i'm in a constant search for a favorite pen. i thought i had finally found one when i had discovered the pilot v5 some years ago, and i sued it alot. 'tis still one of my favorite liquid ink pens by far. as far as gel ink pens, i have had many. one of my most recents, is an indian pen, a Cello Magna. talk about buttery smooth.
but as of late, i have decided to look more into fountain pens. i really love writing with fountain pens and quills (AKA dipping pens). the main thing i have hated about them, though, is the price, of both the pens, let alone the ink. there's something about them, that just keeps me loving them, when i cant afford to shell out 8 bucks for 4 tiny cartridges that would only last me a few days of daily writing. i really hate cartridges. especially the refillable ones. they're so inconsistant, and you always have to worry about them drying up. such a pain in the arse. not to mention the over all maitenence o the pens is just a killer draw back.
recently, however, i discovered the revival of an older technique of using fountain pens, the eyedropper method. it essentially is filling a fountain pen's barrel straight up with ink, forgoing the cartridges i despise. i didnt have the heart to fill any of my pens up with ink, until recently i read about a cheap fountain pen on The Pen Addict, the Pilot Penmanship. eagerly, i read more and more on it, until i found out it is a favorite to eyedropper mod, next to another pen i had found out about in my quest for cheap fountain pens.
now, on Jet Pens, i found the the Penmanship for $7.50. not bad. not bad at all. it would fit my budget rather nicely. i had honestly never expected to find such a wide berth of cheap fountain pens. as it turn out, cheap, and often disposable, fountain pens have been the latest writing trend. you can just guess how thrilled i am bout that! so in y quest for searching for the ulimate cheap fountain pen, i chanced upon the Platinum Preppy, a favorite for eyedropper pens. and i now see why. falling at just $3 at jetpens, i thought this pen would be ideal for the mod. i promptly added one of them to cart along with a Penmanship.
later, however, i deleted it, as in my search for a good ink, i chanced upon a great deal. Noodler's inks, are by far, the best ink i have used. their inks are just fabulous. they have so many varieties, that i initially had a ton of trouble deciding which one to buy. i had read much about it, and so i knew i just had to go with Noodler's. finally, i saw The Heart of Darkness color, a truly dark black ink. available in a 4.5oz bottle with an eyedropper lid, i knew this is the ink i wanted. just $19 too! and now, the reason i deleted the Preppy from the cart, is that the ink came with a free, unmarked Preppy, pre-modded for eyedropper use!! i soon had my dad order me the ink with the free pen, as well as a Penmanship.
so, within 2 days or so of ordering, i had the package on my doorstep! i got rather close to being as excited as when my new longboard came (i havent written about that yet, have i?). and i assure you, i was pretty damn excited. i ran inside, and i opened up the box and yanked out the ink and the preppy, and promptly filled it at my desk, and began doodling. i think i'm in love. i have finally found my favorite pen. it wrote so smooth, also thanks to the lubricated Noodler's ink. i didnt have to deal with the tedious task of filling the cartridge, and i jut got straight to writing, a dream come true! it also meant i didnt have to deal with potential air pockets in the cartridge, making the flow inconsistent.
i havent filled my penmanship just yet, as i dont have an o-ring to seal up the threads, but i'm sure i'll be rather please with it as well. i have decided to stock up on Preppies, as i've just fallen inlove with their cheap, amazingness. plus i have oodles of ink to doodle with.
and i assure you. i'm not weird at all.
just eccentric.
well, my grades have dropped ever so slightly since my last post.. sad, but they shall be up soon. i hope. since the last post much has happened. ankles better, so i'm out on Layla more often, which is amazing. MVSNL was a success, rehearsal for C.O.E. is going strong. been doing some good stuff in photography, lets see what else...
i dunno, really.
so i'm gonna make this post about MVSNL. in all, total success. we completely sol out the first show, not sure about the second, but it was packed! it was oodles of fun! like seriously! i took loads of portraits backstage of fellow cast members on the second, and closing night. i figured out how to bounce my flash really well. i mean, i had read up on it and all, but never really tried it very much.i think i've gotten a good feel for how to bounce light off of where at what angle and degree for highlights on this part of the face. this following picture for instance is my first bounced photo. turned out damn good IMO.
there was this wall directly across from the backstage doors, that i just fell in love with. it bounced the light beautifully, and made the photos real warm.
this one turned out great. slightly too white ish, but otherwise, still nice and well lit over all. i also took a few with out flash but only one or two came out really noteworthy. this one was one of them:
i wish the background was nicer, but thanks to a good bokeh from my trusty nifty fifty, the parking lot served well enough. i also began to shoot manual a bit later, and stuck to it for a while. i do say, it yielded some of my best shots for the night. it darkened the skin tones enough that they didn't seemed washed out by the flash. also, it managed to turn the background black in may photos, and added some pretty epic light and shadow affects if i may say so myself.
heres one of my favorites, of Karina and my new apprentice in the ways of awesomeness, Mikey.
now re' that photography rule, called the Rule of Thirds. which is basically you frame your subject in one of the three thirds, that separate a frame horizontally. typically you avoid the center third for a more interesting photo. but i think there should be a rule of halfs, as sometimes, you just cant use the rule of thirds (especially with a fixed zoom lens!). also, i sometimes love photo bombers. especially like this. oh it would have been so epic if there wasnt bokeh, but it kinda's cool with it:
well, yes i'm sorry about that! and, crooks, since you're like the only one who actually checks this blog every now and then, say this word to me next time you see me after reading this: megalodon.
hell anyone who knows me, say that to me!! but yea, I've been pretty busy since my last post.
school isn't so bad yet.
yet.
hmm lets see, the end of summer, went to Puerto Rico with my pops and bro. had a real blast. its honestly a beautiful island. we did alot there. we went deep sea fishin'. my bor caught like a 275lb Blue Marlin, while i brought in a 4ft long Barracuda!! fantasmic revenge for the bloody 'cuda that ate my baby tuna that i had hooked in the Bahamas about 5 years prior. also, we went zip-lining. man! was that a BLAST!! the food was rather good too; well, at certain places. there's a place we liked so much we went back there 3 times!!
so in school, i have been studying hard... but yet i already have an A- and 3 Bs... bollocks! ah wel, i'm gonna need to start working harder. i auditioned for the school fall play, and managed to hook the role of Antipholus of Syracuse in Shakespeare's Comedy Of Errors...
yoikes there's so many lines you have no idea! I've been stressing like mad!!! argghhh!!! i don't even know how i was chosen! this is seriously my first full length play since i was 8 or 9. mind blowing, i know. and even then, i only had tree lines then!! I'm really freaking out about lines, but I'm also really excited, because its gonna be oodles of fun!
now lets see, what else?
oh yea, I'd like to thank crooks again for having the coolest birthday party ever by taking us to the Green Day concert on the 4th of this month. it was amazing! honestly, musically, i have been to better concerts, but show wise, easily one of the best shows I've ever been to!! they put on an amazing show!! it was the last show of their tour, so they really pulled out all the works! coolest part? they said that they were recording the concert for a live album!!! so sweet!
speaking of concerts, i have 2 other concerts this month I'm really looking forward to!! on the 22nd, i have a Blue October concert! I'm really excited because i missed them last time 'round at the Fillmore because my dad fell sick last minute, and my mum couldn't take me. but hell, that's the past, and i am going this year!! Also, on the 30th, I'm going to see Jimmy Eat World live!! that's one show I'm honestly stoked out of my mind for!! GAHHHH!!! I'M SO EXCITED!!! J.E.W. (hey! it spells "jew" coolio!) is such an awesome band!!
speaking of stoke for you longboarding readers, (ok i'm using that phrase a tad too much), i have an order placed for a clutch jailbait with custom dyed purple/black carbon fiber!! woo! i'm incredibly stoked for that board to come!! thinking of setting it up with gunmetals and Oops! , or possibly Indy's or Hybrids... honestly cant decide yet. but i'm really excited. also, i've found a ton of new longboarding friends!! thats really exciting, cuz now i have people to go ride with. in fact i had a sesh last saturday, but i had to miss it because some stupid girl just totally ruined my skating for the next 2 months... well, 2 weeks, but i'm not taking any risks because of the play.
basically, on thursday, on my way to school, some stupid girl was crossing the street to the sidewalk where i was riding t a decent pace. she made eye contact with me when she had stepped up onto the cub. i had obviously no room to stop, nor any to go around her. yet the numbskull decided to step right infront of me. i attempted to carve around her as not to totally deck her. thanks to my latest bushing combo of 93a and 88a venom elims, my front trucks got around. unfortunately, my rear trucks didnt entirely. my left wheel hit the dirt, stalling my board, thus sending me flying off. whcih, by the way, is not a very fun way to start the day. i landed with pretty much all my force on my left ankle, which is now sprained. 2 week downtime. but i'm taking 2 months, because i really do not want to jeopardize the play.
ok so yea, thats it for now. some news about the blog. i'm planning on changing the layout, as this one's getting old... so if you have any recommendations for sites that do really cool, and simple layouts for free, please comment here! also, i'm changing the style of my blog from very infrequent, but überly long posts that probably bore the lot of you to death, so semi-frequent, blog posts, and i may also use this as a photo blog... no not like how people use tumblr. like i may post some photos i took and like and wanna share, or someone else's photo i like alot. i dunno. let it just be know that changes shall be made soon!
but oddly enough, there haven't been.
i didn't even realize its been a whole bloody month without me writing on my own blog.I've been much too preoccupied with sleeping, and screwing around. sometimes i'm nuttier than squirrel poo. amazing phrase wasn't that? i know you're just laughing your head off in you chair right now. oh thank you Harry Potter!
i honestly haven't been up to much this whole summer. I've, as my brother puts it, "slept my whole effing summer away, dumb ass!".
well, its true. staying up till 2 or later, then waking up in the PM equivalent hasn't proven the most productive tactic, eh? so I'm starting to get back off my ass, and get productive. or so i keep telling myself and my family.
well, i remember promising a post birthday post, so here's a chunk of one, no matter how delayed.
my birthday it self was very nice. and just plain amazing. i woke up decently early, considering, and was greeted with many "happy birthdays" from my family. i honestly couldn't believe i was now officially 15. like i had said, thanks to toy story 3, i was beginning to dread my birthday, but now, a month later, i realized how stupid i was. sure I'm growing up.sure, i have toys that i haven't played with in years. but that isn't bad. i can play with those anytime i want. and believe me i do. no matter how old i am, nor how big i am, I'm just a little kid inside, as we all are, somewhere.
well, after i realized my stupidity, i chilled, my pops decided to tell me to get dressed, and said he was taking me some where. so i did, and my whole family came with me. my dad had decided to surprise me and take me to the camera store! man, you have no idea how over-joyed i was!
after a few minutes of anticipation, i had asked to buy the flash and 50mm lens i had been wanting for MONTHS!! along with some small accessories.after that, e went out for lunch. to Korean BBQ. for those of you who haven't been to the place we go to, Palace Korean BBQ,or Korean BBQ in general, its basically a big table, with a mini gas grill in the middle, and you grill marinated meats of your choice right there.
if you know me, you'd know, next to steak, in-n-out, and Brazilian BBQ, that's some of my favorite meat in the world. so at this very one, there's essentially a buffet of raw, marinated meats, ranging from chicken to squid sliver. my personal favorite is the spicy pork, and i totally gorged myself on that stuff. WORTH IT! anywho, after that, headed home, and chilled until dinner with family friends, at BJ's. it gave me a great opportunity to try out my new lens and flash.
but honestly turning 15 wasn't that big of a deal. the main thing i got out of it was growing oh so closer to driving. which is one of the things i've been truly wishing to do since i was a little kid. i have always loved cars, and everything to do with them. still do frankly. i'm known to randomly make sounds of a manual sports car gunning down the road, shifting gears and all. just because i was bored. i still play with my Hot Wheels cars and my proper models all the time. its just so satisfying. driving is the one thing i havent been able to wait for. i just want to sit behind the wheel soo bad!! everyone in my family jokes around saying i wont get a car till I'm 21, as I'm too reckless and will go too fast.
sure, i love speed. alot, but i have an insane respect for cars. unless its a TOTAL P.O.S., i wouldnt do anything that would put my car at risk! i looovves cars! as far as dream cars go, i have many. realistically, even somewhat, there are two. and that's either a '65-'67 Mustang GT500 Fastback (must be Fastback!) or a '68-'73 Corvette Stingray. my true less realistic, but still possible dream car would be a '63 Corvette Stingray, with split rear windows. man that cars so beautiful. i'd even settle for a '64 or maybe a '65, but the '63 is where my heart is. but the car i know i will never have a chance to own, but i still worship, is the unproduced, Corvette Mako Shark II. sexiest. car. ever.
but its not like i don't like sexy sports cars. believe me i do. i have a fantastic taste in cars, if i may say so myself. i love a goo lambo murcialago LP450, or better yet, a Diablo, and I'm partial to a Ferrari Enzo, and F50, but its all about the Bugatti Veyron!! i also do LOVE an Audi R8. ssoooooo beautiful!
as far as cars go, they need to be hot, and fast. and comfy. then they are awesome.
anyways, I'm off to bed. I'm ever so slightly tired after being chucked out of bed rather forcibly by my irritated brother, so 'gnight, and maybe if i DON'T promise to write another post soon, i'll actually do it, eh?
well, this summer so far, i've done nothing but sleeping till noon, or typically later, and go to sleep 'round 2ish+.i really ought to end it...
anyways, otherwise it hasnt been very eventful. i've been riding my new longboard, Layla quite often. she really is awesome. i dont regret buying her. i seriously suffer from G.A.S. though. also know as Gear Acquisition Syndrome. yea. whatever hobbies i get into, i always need to have a lot of things related to it.
happened when i yoyoed. then again, i was never any good, and only did it to chill with my bro. longboarding is actually something i like.
anyways. today, errrrr, yesterday was my birthday party. yes, as of today (today today) i'm 15.
this is crazy. thanks to Toy Story 3, i feel as if my childhood's ending. that movie brought back memories o my wee years, when there was nothing to worry about, everything was so easy, and i had no responsibilities. the ending of the movie hit me hard. i cant believe they had andy do that.
right after the movie, i went and played with all the old toys of mine i still have, including one woody and one buzz. so i was both anxious and slightly dreading it yet excited about my birthday coming right up. and then WHAM! (see there lit teacher? i used onomatopoeia!) it hit me. i really didnt see it coming. but now i'm 15. just half a year from driving. i cant wait. theres so much out there or me. yet i feel like my lifes starting to run out. i just turned 15 but my minds feels as if i turned 50. theres so much i've done, yet so much i havent. for my party, i reaaaalllyyy wanted to rent a 4-in-1 jumphouse. it would have been so epic! but i was stupid and i didnt really plan my party.
and somethings really odd. lately there has been birds chirping away through out the wee hours o the morn'. seriously, what the hell?
WILL THEY SHUT UP? its so annoying!! better than cicadas at any rate.
anywho, i'm off to bed, and i'll write up a post birthday post.
sorry. i have been busy. school ended last week. man, was that relieving. school, well, lets not bring up that unfortunate subject more than i have to. but i can say finals werent as bad as i thought they'd be. i managed to pull my bio grade up. thats good.
but thats about it when it comes to that damned place.
summer feels good so ar. sleeping in as long as i want., doing anything i want, etc.
My longboard finally shipped out!! YES! and BC said they'd toss in a free shirt for the wait. thats really cool of 'em. but rankly i'm as excited as possible. it reached San Pablo CA around 4:30 yesterday. San Pablo is not but 1.5 hours away! yet still, i received no package on my doorstep. COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!
leave it to UPS. i hate 'em!!
so hopefully it comes tomorrow, and i it doesnt, i'm assuming they're trying to hold onto it until the day they predict it to be on my doorstep comes around. I'm really tempted to make a Midnight + raid on the UPS Processing Facility tonight. It will involve rescuing my longboard, then blowing up the place with a huge explosion JUST as we leave, sending us flying into the ground with ridiculous expressions of fear, pain, and victory on our faces.
anyone in?
well, yea. i cant wait to get my board!!! i've been waiting ages for it. i've just ordered it not but a month ago, yet i already have another board in my sight. a Rolls-Rolls Woody 85. sooo nice!! it shall be done, in good time.
i really want a summer job. one that pays good too. i mean, i need money more now that i'm a teenager and my parental units wont just shell out money for something i want. it also doesnt help that the things i want happen to b ridonulously expensive. why oh why did i have to get into PHOTOGRAPHY of all damned things!!??!!!
lenses are soo bloody expensive!! i've been attempting to hunt down a Canon Nifty Fifty used for the past coupla weeks, but to no avail. hopefully my pops just lets me shell out my own savings on it.
i've noticed my "f" key is ridiculous sticky. dunno how it got to be like that.
anyways, i'll try to blog more often over the summer. we'll see how that goes.
and if you or anyone you know is interested in hiring an amateur photographer, CONTACT ME!!
FOR ANOTHER PIE POST!
well, as you must know, pie is one of the most amazing creations on this planet. i would love to meet the inventor of pie and give 'em a huge ol' hug. seriously! whats life with out pie?
i think i need to get a good meat pie. there's a great Steak and Onion Pie at The Duke of Edinburgh, buut i'm kinda sick of that 'un. and there's no good Brit Pubs locally, or even sublocaly. Brittannia Arms sucked.
but onto sweet pies, i still worship a good cherry, but i've been dying to try a good blue berry.
think about how amazing pie is. a nice, sweet, golden brown crust that crumbles perfectly in your mouth. the filling perfectly sweet and yummy.
soft and gooey, yet still has txture.
damn it. i made myself drool. maybe i shouldnt blog while hungry, and in a bad mood.
pie is mah comfort fud.
WHATS YOUR FAVORITE KIND?
comment here or on facebook, or what not.
