I saw this and was pretty impressed that the Yahoo! folks (Flickr’s parent company) started to support Blogger (a Google company). I always thought it would be really nifty if Picasa (Google) had some kind of integration with Flickr – it seemed like a great match (even though I don’t really use Picasa anymore), but thought it was pretty much impossible because of the rivalry the parent companies have. Well, seeing as how Flickr has extended signs of friendship to the Google camp, maybe they’ll return the favor and integrate with Flickr a bit in Picasa? That would be pretty sweet… I liked Picasa a lot more than iPhoto.

Oh yes, and I’m decking myself out in the Apple/Nike gear if new nanos come out today (I’m thinking yes). Barton, here I come… =)

“Riffraff! Street rat! Soundrel! Take that!”
“Just a little snack, guys”
“Rip him open, take it back, guys”
“I can take a hint, gotta face the facts
You’re my only friend, Abu!”
“Who?” - Aladdin & Crowd (Aladdin)

There are things I’d like to talk about on my blog, but I have to hold back cause I remember how public it is (no, I’m not getting married… I know everyone was wondering). I’m not even sure what makes me want to blog, but it’s kinda fun just throwing out random ideas/thoughts, eh?

I’m digging the cooler weather. I’ve been checking Weather.com before I’d take off work to see how cooked I’d get in the heat, and sometimes stay a bit later for it to cool off more. It feels oh so nice to see 78° instead of 98°. Speaking of 98°… this is dedicated to Andrew, haha =) …

“You are my everything
Nothing your love won’t bring
My life is yours alone
The only love I’ve ever known
Your spirit pulls me through
When nothing else will do
Every night I pray on bended knee
That you will always be
My everything” - 98°

Ok… that was a little too much…

Today (well, technically yesterday) was the first official Vox Veniae service. It was pretty good. I’m kinda tired right now, so I’m kinda blanking out on writing more, but I think VV has a bright future ahead. =)

Went to Texas Land & Cattle for Nathan’s bday. Happy bday! (And Brad too! why didn’t we get Brad to go?… oh, yes, Brad is nocturnal.)

I take weekends off of running, but I get really strong itches to run when I’m either bored or feel like I have a lot of energy… this running thing is addicting. >=) Supposedly, as long as my joints don’t hurt (they don’t), it’s not bad running every day… yay! Oh, yes, also, if some random girl reads this I am unaware of and wants to co-lead a Vox Veniae Elements, we need more female leaders… haha. Yeah, I know… slim chance.

“Some day somebody’s gonna make you want to
Turn around and say goodbye
Until then baby are you going to let them
Hold you down and make you cry
Don’t you know?
Don’t you know things can change
Things’ll go your way
If you hold on for one more day
Can you hold on for one more day
Things’ll go your way
Hold on for one more day” - Wilson Phillips

Wedding went alright, I think. I photoshop edited a few pictures, but got too lazy on the rest besides simple exposure/color balance changes in Aperture. Here are a few more pics:



Bride & Groom:





There was this really cute little girl with pretty blue eyes too… she had a cute smile, but I didn’t get any shots of that. =(

The rest of the pics are on my flickr.

“You shake my nerves and you rattle my brain
Too much love drives a man insane
You broke my will, but what a thrill
Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire!” - Jerry Lee Lewis

Going to take pictures at a wedding (reception?) in an hour or two while Viraj tries to nail down some Texas/Ohio tickets. =) I spent much of the last hour scouring the FredMiranda forums looking at wedding pictures and post-processing techniques. Man, there are some good photographers there (and lots of not so great ones, haha). Batteries charged, check, CF cards in the cameras and formatted, check, flash ready, check, lenses ready/cleaned, check. Alright, I’m good to go.

I don’t think I take good posed shots… just cause I don’t have much experience with it I guess. I much prefer candid shots I suppose. We’ll see, I’m not sure exactly what type of pictures I’m supposed to take…

“I’m here waiting for something new to break my heart
So callous laden, I can’t feel a thing at all
Will You catch my fall?” - Jars of Clay

Apparently my new host (thanks a lot, Aaron! =P haha) is having network issues which is why OliverWEB is uber slow right now. Should hopefully be resolved Monday night… we’ll see…

“I’ll be your number one
I’ll be your supercharge
I’ll be your superhero,
Baby when you’re seein’ stars

I’ll be your everyone
I’ll be your only friend
And when you’re zero baby,
I could be your perfect ten” - All Star United

Andrew came back for the Texas/Ohio game and I went to pick him up at the airport yesterday. The following emails were sent:

Andrew Joseph to planeteers

I had to check in a bag Oli, so you can add an extra
30 minutes to my arrival time to pick me up.

————————————————-

Oliver to planeteers

oh oh, I’m gonna dress up for you, Andrew… you’ll
like this ;) ;) ;)

hahahaha

-Oliver

————————————————-

Oliver to planeteers

and yes, I realize how gay that sounds/is… haha =)

-Oliver

————————————————-

Katherine Fan to planeteers

Did you wear pinky pinky for him?

Yes, in fact I did. I know how much Andrew loves pink, especially when I have to do with it… haha. Not only did I wear my pink polo, but I wore jeans and sandals too… two types of clothing I don’t regularly wear… I didn’t even own a pair of sandals until the last baptism. I waited for Andrew at the baggage claim and saw him coming down the escalator. First thing he does – shakes his head. Yay!

Tomorrow, I’ve got a wedding to shoot and I kinda want to watch the Texas/Ohio game… who else is watching it?

This song is dedicated to Viraj and his hands:

If you’re not the one then why does my soul feel glad today?
If you’re not the one then why does my hand fit yours this way?
If you are not mine then why does your heart return my call?
If you are not mine would I have the strength to stand at all?” - Daniel Bedingfield

Ok, I take it back. I’m going running.

I knew you all needed to know that, so just blogging it. ;)

Actually, I kinda just wanted to post more lyrics. =)

“Freedom like a song
The weak shall be made strong
I may sink before I swim
but I’m not giving in to you” - Five Iron Frenzy

I wish I could somehow convey the way “Work! Work!” is supposed to be said. To those who have played Warcraft 3, it should sound like the peons when you click on them. =)

I’ve been having severe motivation problems going to work recently. I wake up and I just don’t want to go. That’s not good. Currently, I’m trying to figure out why some darn Gstreamer plugins won’t build and I absolutely hate debugging build issues. They really tick me off.

I think that’s a big reason why I like a lot of common web tools like PHP and Perl… there’s no compiling. Development environments just seem so much simpler with them. shrug

I think I might take a break from running today… but I’m not sure yet. The past few days I went running by my lonesome have been pretty nice though (weather is gooood =), so maybe I’ll be in the mood when I leave work…

“I’ve been cheated by you since I don’t know when
So I made up my mind, it must come to an end
Look at me now, will I ever learn?
I don’t know how but I suddenly lose control
There’s a fire within my soul
Just one look and I can hear a bell ring
One more look and I forget everything, w-o-o-o-oh” - ABBA

So last night at Elements, I was tasked with taking this picture and creating the image above. As you can tell, it’s a really quick hack job in Photoshop, but I hope you enjoy it, haha… I didn’t want to waste too much of my life on it. =)

On a slightly related note, I think I may try to lead a college Elements… but we’ll see. There seem to be a lack of female leaders, so I may be stuck with no coleader and/or another guy coleader (which means the group will be all guys and not coed)… I seem to be cursed (or blessed? =) with all guy small groups (haha, well, except my current one… though the girls are far outnumbered). I think all my previous Elements, there has only been maybe one or two girls in the group other than the leader that sometimes showed up. Then, there was that one group where Jen Chi ended up being the only girl and eventually they made ours officially an all-guy group and sent her to another group. Haha…

“I know that your powers of retention

Are as wet as a warthog’s backside

But thick as you are, pay attention

My words are a matter of pride

It’s clear from your vacant expressions

The lights are not all on upstairs

But we’re talking kings and successions

Even you can’t be caught unawares” - Scar (The Lion King)