Every time Stone Sour's song "Through Glass" plays on the radio, I turn the bass up two notches and crank my car stereo (Toyota has a factory system that puts serious foot to ass) till I can barely tolerate it. I love that song.

I'm looking at you through the glass, don't know how much time has passed. Oh God it feels like forever, but no one ever tells you that forever feels like home, sitting all alone inside your mind.

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Had my finals today, and for once, truly lived up to the title "Andy Pants". It's been getting cold in the mornings here, so shivering I threw on some flannel PJ pants for the morning. They were so comfortable, though, that I just kept them on and threw a flannel shirt and some shoes on to go to school. So I spent the day at OIP&T in my blue checkered pajama pants, to many quizzical comments. I am Andy Pants, hear me roar!

Photo Design final was fun. Much like the midterm, the practical was to shoot an un-beforehand-beknownst subject and process, print, and hand it in by the end of class. Today it was balloons, and we weren't restricted to the lab. Good god, how do you photograph balloons interestingly? My first idea was to go across the way to walmart, buy a few posterboards and a marker, make a sandwich board rimmed with balloons that said "Honk! It's my birthday!", setup my camera on a tripod, and stand at the corner of Dixie and Dorothy waving at traffic. Unfortunately, I had about $5 to my name, and that was carefully budgeted for a bag of animal crackers for dinner between classes, and the Steel Reserve beer that I'm drinking now.

So I stayed in the commercial lab, and after many failed setups, I arrived the photo shown just below this post. Then, I helped a fellow classmate who had checked out the little sound trigger box that pops the flash upon variable sensitivity to noise. It's useful for capturing something momentary (and noisy) such as a popping balloon mid-burst. He manned the camera while I bravely weilded the thumbtack. I hate loud noises.

Then, for fun, he had the bright idea for me to hold the camera and keep the shutter open while he banged on the table in rapid succession causing the flash to pop like a disco strobe, while he flapped his head side to side with his tongue hanging out. The resulting photo is a mess of tongues and noses and a flurry of hair. His resulting print drew Oohs and Ahs from several instructors. Hell yeah, I held the camera. :-)

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At the end of our third quarter haunting the hallowed halls of the Ohio Institute of Photography, people's individual styles are beginning to reveal themselves. I'm very much predisposed to stark graphic images of everyday objects (again revealed by the image just beyond this post). The guy I helped in lab, he experiments in weird ways and produces very abstract images. Another guy is a total wizard with product shots. And Elizabeth remains totally clueless at school, but extracurricularly produces images at her studio that deserve no less than to be published in the pages of Vogue. Seriously. I adore her non-school photography.

And, of course, Jeremy B blows me away. That boy's going to be a photographic God when he hits the professional field. I have such a huge crush on him... and I have Photoshop II with him next quarter. Naturally, I'm arriving bright and early on the first day to get the seat next to him.

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Kicked ass in my Advanced Camera final too, but the polaroids were boring shots of a frontal short loop light form on a mannequin head (the same as the one I posted a few months ago, shot for my Lighting class final), and a box of Kix cereal. Snooze.

(but for you photo buffs out there... isn't calling for a frontal head position and a short loop light form contradictory?)

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Tonight I fully realized just how hard I'm beginning to fall for Elizabeth. Here, at the end of the third quarter as her classmate-become-friend, and in my eighth month of knowing her, I had my first honest feeling. She was standing inches from me talking about the project she needed my help with, and despite my penchant for curvy women, my entire being was consumed by the warmth on my arm radiated by her close proximity, and all I could think of was my sudden and intense urge to scoop her up in my arms and hold her tight.

BTW, I'm meeting with Walmart Photo Girl for coffee this Saturday. I think it's obvious I'm soooooooo not ready for a relationship, but we clicked so well in coversation. Also, the emails she composes, while conversational and chatty, are absolute verbal music that I read over and over and over again.

I'm so totally not ready for a relationship right now.