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Monday Mission 3.35

1. The North Carolina Press Photographers Association (NCPPA) recently took back a photographer’s three awards when it was learned that he had digitally altered some photos. I use PhotoShop or other digital editing tools all the time on my photographs. I never thought that was wrong. Do you think it is “unethical” for newspaper photographers to use PhotoShop to alter the images they capture? Should journalists be held to a higher standard? Hmm. I don’t think it’s wrong to alter photos if you’re using them in an artistic sense (re: layouts for websites). But submitting a photoshopped pic (unless it’s to delete unsightly grain or crop) is probably not something I would do. I mean, the title of the program *is* Photoshop, therefore it makes sense to use it to manipulate photos, but isn’t the point of a photography contest to take the best picture and not show off the best manipulating ability?

2. On the flip-side of journalistic integrity, several newspapers are choosing not to run the Sept. 7 edition of “Doonesbury” because it mentions masturbation. I just don’t care for Doonesbury anymore, but it made me wonder how much progress we’ve really made as a society. Is masturbation a bad thing? Even in the times in which we live, is it something that can’t be spoken of still? And just for grins, do you really believe people who say they’ve never done that? Ha. I never read Doonesbury anymore. I don’t really care about it, hence it wouldn’t matter, I don’t think, if the Post-Dispatch ran that edition…besides, it usually runs on the inside left page and no one reads that anyway. lol. In the world of Austin Powers, when is anything taboo? Doesn’t mean I like hearing about it, but I’m not going to try to stop people from getting their jollies πŸ˜‰

3. If you had the power to be the Webmaster Almighty, what one thing would you eliminate entirely from the World Wide Web? SPAM! No spam! We all hate junk mail. Is the return of a few curious people really worth the effort and annoyance of the millions of people who just delete it? Oh yeah, and viruses. Why?!? This is one thing I would try to stop people from getting their jollies with.

4.Did you grow up in the same town when you were young, or did your parents move around a lot? How do you think that impacted your life? Has it had any affects on your adult life? Oh yes. I’m still at home. I keep thinking how nice it would be to get an apartment to be in a different place…my parents always thought we would move sometime, but that hasn’t happened, so aside from living in the dorms in college I’ve never really lived outside St. Louis. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to live in a different place, like California or Colorado or New York and I don’t know if I’d really like it that much. I like my parents a lot, you know, and the long distance bills would kill me πŸ˜‰ Of course, if a wonderful opportunity came about, I’d consider it.

5. Who deserves to be called a Liar to their face? What would you say to them to publicly humiliate them? Well. I don’t know if I can totally call Bush a liar, but he sure is stupid sometimes. WHY ARE WE STILL IN IRAQ? we haven’t killed Sadaam, we haven’t killed Osama bin Laden, people are dying and he’s too stubborn to get out of there! Agh! Yes, I am a democrat.

6. How do you picture Heaven? You get everything you want, unless it’s bad for you, and then you have the grace to accept that. You’re strong and healthy and totally in love with God.

7. Who do you hope to meet in the afterlife? My grandparents, other ancestors. Him.

BONUS: When you’re gone how can I even try to go on? I hope you do…I’m not that special.

PS: it’s not my fault this is on a tuesday. Remember we had Labor Day yesterday??? So, really, I’m on time.

Stretch your mind

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Thank you May for the birthday wishes and sending me on a quest:

The Da Vinci Code Quest
It’s fun, really. And you can find the answers, I swear. If that whets your appetite (which it should) go get the book. It’s highly recommended and reads quick! I even felt like I figured out things before the protagonist wink Great mystery. Read it!

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the friday five:

1. Are you going to school this year? I’m going to wait at least one more year before grad school.

2. If yes, where are you going (high school, college, etc.)? If no, when did you graduate? I graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in May 2002 (I can’t believe it’s been over a year now)

3. What are/were your favorite school subjects? English, art, sciences.

4. What are/were your least favorite school subjects? Math of any type.

5. Have you ever had a favorite teacher? Why was he/she a favorite? Ms. Blackiston was a great teacher…and I loved my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade teachers…Mrs. Coleman, Mrs. Bruggeman and Mrs. Seppe.

happy Labor Day weekends to my friends in the US! If you’re in St. Louis, check out the Queeny Park Art faire…www.gslaa.com πŸ™‚

An Amazing Performance

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<MAP NAME=”boxmap-p8″><AREA SHAPE=”RECT” COORDS=”14, 200, 103, 207″ HREF=”http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm/privacy-policy.html?o=1″ ><AREA COORDS=”0,0,10000,10000″ HREF=”http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/aspiretothest-20″ ></MAP><img src=”http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/rcm/120×240.gif” width=”120″ height=”240″ border=”0″ usemap=”#boxmap-p8″ alt=”Shop at Amazon.com”>What a way to spend a birthday. I mentioned yesterday how my uncle might not be able to use his front row tickets to the Lion King playing at the Fox. Well, the reason for that was because my uncle’s father-in-law’s daughter had a heart attack. She was only 46 and had no history of heart disease or the other risk factors. I came back to the lab after doing some running around for Luigi and had an odd message waiting for me…the woman had died, and my uncle was definitely not going to be able to use the tickets as they were heading down to be with the father-in-law’s family. Now, it may sound callous, but I didn’t know this person even though I’ve probably spent at least a few Christmases with her…Alas. My sincere sympathy and thanks that you died. Agh. Sounds horrible…but once I sat in the darkened theater waiting for the really cool opening curtain to go up, I had to thank God. Remember how I’d said just once I’d like to be able to go up to the front without having to fight for it? Well, here it was. We were front row slightly left of center, on the aisle…we literally got brushed by some elephants and wildebeest, and some bird puppets (I want one of those)…we were close enough to see the makeup and all the fine details. Wow. The opening Circle of Life sequence made me tear up. Seriously. What’s funny is the Lion King cartoon was the only movie I ever cried at (when Mufasa died…:sad: ) and now the musical. It was just so magical and harmonious and they were right there. The songs were very well sung, and I loved the puppets. There was shadow play like traditional chinese theater shows, which delighted my mother (my dad elected not to try to go, as we only had two tickets and he would have had to sit in the way back for half the show). The puppets were amazing. Instead of covering up the actors’ faces, they were headpieces or part of a costume so you could still see the expressions.
All the emotions of the movie were there, with that added kick that live shows get. I liked the new songs on the whole. The scenery was spare but gave the impression of the lush jungle with just a few well-placed props. Gorgeous lighting and special effects. A simulated drought,
(and now we pause for a random question. If drought sounds like ‘drout,’ why doesn’t draught sound like ‘draut?’ Or trough ‘trou?’ That bothers me because I remember reading ‘draught’ when I was little and thinking of drought and going, oh yeah, I know how to say this. Now back to your regularly scheduled gushing post.)
There’s much more where this came from…and birthday gifties!

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It’s my birthday and I’ll watch TTT if I want to

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Yes folks, it’s true. I’ll be 23 in a few hours. And wonder of all wonders, it rained a little today (isolated showers, of course…not on our house) so it’s a tiny bit cooler. Still supposed to reach the upper 90s later in the day.
Yes, I got TTT last night (thank you Alex) and yes, we watched the whole thing. I managed to persuade my parents to go for the whole stretch instead of waiting until today…I’m sure it will get watched again very soon, regardless. Only watched the RotK preview and the TTT SE dvd preview…man, I can’t wait for nov/dec. I got an Aragorn pin from the nice lady at the grocery store. Too bad it wasn’t Legolas, lol. I swear I will get the Realm fixed up sometime soon. I’ve got to put all the new members on the new fanbase!
I’m dressed up today…wonder if anyone will notice. As far as I know, no one at work knows it’s my birthday, which is a little sad, cause I bet someone would have brought cookies. But no big deal.
I’m quite excited cause my birthday gift from my parents is tickets to the Lion King at the Fox Theater in a few weeks. I’ve wanted to see this for a while so I’m very happy that it’s in town and we get to see it. However….Due to some very unfortunate circumstances that I don’t wish to go into today my uncle got some free front row tickets for tonight, and he may or may not be able to use them. Realize the tickets we bought are VERY expensive and not refundable, and as much as I hope I like the musical, it’s probably not worth seeing twice in such a short period of time. But it’s the front row!!!! Agggh. Maybe things will work out and my uncle will be able to use them and spare us the dilemma. Maybe I can sell ours on eBay if we do go. We’d be missing out on Macaroni Grill if we go as well. (lol. not that we can’t go out to eat any time, but I’ve been waiting for some of that Macaroni’s bread for ages)
It might be a pretty busy day, which is a little sad. I’m almost sorry to say I want to spend it on the computer messing with my forum…I upgraded it and lost all the modifications I’d made to the previous version (I knew it was going to happen that way so no worries) but who knows what’s going on today. Gotta get my Sesquicentennial shirt from WU…how nice. they’re giving me a gift on my bday! lol. Maybe I’ll go out to lunch. Feel free to send your birthday wishes!

More tinkering

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The Aspire Forum is now blue. Go check it out, and post, damn you! lol. No one loves the forum. And remember the gallery is cool too. I’m trying to get back into that web-design mentality and fix up all my sites that haven’t been updated in too long. Someone enjoy them.
It’s just about midnight and there are people in this time zone buying the Two Towers right now. Sigh. I have to wait till tomorrow, but thank you Alex. It’s a nice birthday present. Don’t you want to get me something too? lol. You know what I’ll be doing tomorrow, don’t you?

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Monday Mission 3.34

1. When was the last time you helped out a friend in need? What was going on that made you want to help? Er. I think I gave someone html help recently…maybe it was when I helped Nessa escape a webstalker. Sort of. Had to be something online. I don’t have all that many offline friends. I did help my mom with errands the other day… I help when I’m not feeling lazy.

2. Are you a “pet” person? Do you like to keep pets or would you rather not bother with them? Why? I have a bird (who is now at least 10 years old! Go Sapphire!) by dint of the fact that my friends felt sorry for me that I didn’t have a pet when I was younger. I got a bird and a hamster…obviously poor Ruby is no longer with us. I had a rabbit before those two… but I’ve never felt the need to get another pet. I wouldn’t mind a cat, but I’d sure hate having to train one…

3. In a dating or married relationship, is it possible to change someone to be more like you want them to be? Have you tried to or had someone try to change you? How did it turn out? Er. It’s probably possible…I know that I’m different today because of Chris, but that was unintentional. I like to think I had a positive influence on him as well, but I have no idea. He’s in the army now and I haven’t heard from him since last year. All his emails have disappeared.

4. In your opinion, why is it that some married people have affairs? Is it ever justified? Excitement? Is it hardwired in the guys? I don’t know. In my short experience with relationships I’ve never been tempted to stray and my parents are still very happily married and look to be for a very long time (thank God). I honestly don’t have all that much experience with it.

5. Do you tend to make the same mistakes over and over? Got any examples? I read too much. I procrastinate all the time. I speed.

6. What do you find distracts you the most when you are trying to concentrate? A good song. Conversely, a good song can also focus me. Go fig.

7. What do you know “now,” that you wish you knew “then?” Talk to boys. Sleep more.

BONUS: What’s the matter with your life? I’m too tired. And I need an eye candy.

TTT comes out tomorrow! Whee!

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RemusLupin
You are Remus Lupin,the kind werewolf and possibly
the sweetest person in the world^^ You like to
read and love hanging around with your best
friends

Which of the marauders are you?
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Which Pirates of the Caribbean character are you?