Memorial Day

Three.

Today is Memorial Day. I took this opportunity to visit a grave I have not visited in a while. As I was only 10 years old when the most recent significant death happened to me, I do not have as much of an emotional tie to the dead who were close to me. This being said, I don't think I was that close to my grandparents on my dad's side. I didn't go through the stages of grief like my Mom and Dad did. To be quite honest, I have never had to truly grieve for anything (Suzie [my cat] comes close). I wish I would have had the opportunity to know both of my grandparents better, so the best I can do is visit them...

I tried to get as artsy as you can at a cemetery:

I hope everyone took time out of their long weekend to remember someone or something.

Peace,

~Pat

Back to it!

Two.

After 3 years, I came out of retirement as a media programmer/operator at POP Church. The screens have been off ever since me and KS left many years ago. I have come to rescue them and make sure they are taken care of when I leave again in 3 months. I wanted to get a sunrise picture for "Sundays", but I subconsciously turned off my phone alarm...so I decided to get a shot of the sun through the stained glass window after both services were done. I hope to bring a tripod next week and get a good HDR shot of it.

A shot of the new stained glass window in the sanctuary:

After church I went to Centennial Lakes Park in Edina and met Patty for lunch (as she was on her way home through the cities). We walked around the park and watched all of the rich white people enjoy their afternoon. It was a good time. I miss her already.

In other news I have decided to learn Ruby on Rails as a summer project...wish me luck!

P.S. I have decided that most (hopefully all) blog posts will go up at exactly 11:55PM CST.

Later,

~Pat

365 Days 'till the Real World

One.

So this is it, I am starting my picture-a-day. 365 days until I graduate (Sidenote: I added a countdown clock in the right-sidebar).

I have spent most of my time since completing my last final, hanging out at my house with Patty (She wanted to get off campus for a while before she had to go back to sing for chapel tomorrow). She decided my room needed some cleaning and updating. I helped. I wish I had taken some before shots, but here is the end result:

My bed looking from the hallway door:

The closet from my brother's bed:

The shelves and doorway to the hall from my bed:

I think it turned out pretty good. I thank Patty for being a motivator for this transformation!

Well, I should go to bed, as it is "Sunday" tomorrow...

Later,
~Pat

T: -2 Days

I haven't written in a while, but hey May is my warm-up right? I added some pictures from my camera tonight and I am going to blog-hack the date, so make sure you look back a few posts to see them. I don't have a photo of today, so feel free to look back into the "hacked" past and view some of those. The 365 day adventure starts in 2 days (May 29)!

~Pat

Honorable Defeat

Today was the annual MCS (Maths and Computer Science) vs. SPS (Society of Physics Students) Ultimate Frisbee game. As usual the MCS team was a little small so it was like 5 vs. 12. Physics was able to switch out people and the whole MCS team played the whole game. All things considered (including the almost triple digit heat index), the 7-11 loss to SPS wasn't so bad. Patty decided to spectate and snapped a few shots:

NOTE: This post was blog-hacked to be in the past!

Peace,
~Pat

Last Day of Conditioning

Today was the last day of Conditioning class. I will never be forced to run for a grade again! For this last day, we had to do a photo scavenger hunt, here are a couple of the shots that I took:

NOTE: This post was blog-hacked to be in the past!

~Pat

MIA

Patty had to do an assignment for her art and archeology of Greece course today so she took my brother Phillip and I to the Minneapolis Institute of Art so she could complete her assignment. I hoped that MIA would allow photography, which they do, and so I took a few pictures. Here are some of my favorites:

And finally the one of the strangest things we saw:

NOTE: This post was blog-hacked to be in the past!

Till next time,
~Pat

Power Outage

There was a city wide power outage today. While waiting for it to come back on Patty, DM and I decided to take pictures of ourselves, this is what we came up with:

This one looks kinda strange because the hand and arm are not mine:

Patty shot this one, and it looks like it came straight off of a poster or advertisment:

And lets not forget about the inanimate face of this piece of luggage:

NOTE: This post was blog-hacked to be in the past!


~Pat

It's Been a While

I am glad that I considered May to be a warm-up month, as I haven't posted in a couple of days now. I have decided that May 29th will be day 1 of the photo-a-day thing. With this date as the start date, the last day of the project will be my undergraduate commencement.

This week the weather has been rather crummy. Rain and chilly winds have plagued the campus and I really want the sun to come out. I snapped this picture from my dorm window on Thursday:

EDIT: While waiting for Patty to go to the caf I did some editing of the above picture and came up with this:

On Wednesday I finished the presentation of the Octavia problem I had been blabbing on about and now have turned in all of my poker chips and have my "A" in the course!

Sorry this post is so scatter-brained,
~Pat

Late Night Travels

Here on campus there are 2 news anchors from Kare11 going for the world record for longest tennis match. Me and Patty decided to watch for a while last night around 1am. I had never been in the tennis bubble, and I took the opportunity to take some pictures. Enjoy!

On our way back, we found this pleasant treat in the stairwell of my dorm:

I really love how responsible young college students can be so juvenile. The blatant disregard for the lovely cleaning staff of this building disgusts me. Every time I see the janitorial staff, they always smile at me, and I always smile back (maybe even say "Good Morning" if I am feeling extra happy). The janitors already do a lot for the residents and are extremely under appreciated. People doing this kind of thing are slapping them in the face. The content of the message doesn't even bother me after I think about the kind people who will need to clean this up. I just wish people could select a less selfish medium to inform others' about Rob Craft's sexual exploits.

I'll write about today a little later, after LOST!
EDIT: I lied.

~Pat

Down to 2.25 Courses

I finally (after 3 attempts), squashed the bug that was plaguing my code for the last problem I had to do for my computer science capstone. After I present my solution to this problem I will only have 2.25 courses to complete for this semester (out of 4.25 that I was registered for, the other course being assistant stage management). Being done with these 2 courses will hopefully allow me to focus on Theory of Computation, which has been kicking my butt lately. (5 problems to do tonight.)

On another note, I finished wading through my pictures for Arabian Nights and now can focus on white balancing and de-noising them. I hope to have some of them out on the web soon.

In the small amount of chill time I had today, I played some Zelda: Twilight Princess and beat the forest temple. As well as talking Classics with my GF Patty in the Library.

I also started to think about neat things I could do when I start up the picture-a-day part of this blog. I am thinking that Sundays' will be "Sunrise or Sunset" days where I wake up early and get a shot of the flaming ball of gas that we call the sun. "Theatre Thursdays" will feature a picture of the set as it progresses (during the school year). Do any of my readers have other ideas for themed days of the week? Let me know in comments! \/

EDIT: I am not going to be doing "Sundays" I am just too lazy...

~Pat

Definitely not moving to Octavia!

Pretty much all day I worked on my last problem for my Topics course. This problem pertains to an imaginary city that has very low speed limits and huge city blocks (1 sq. mi.) I submitted attempt 1 and got it returned to me, and finished up a second attempt which is now to be graded. I also just recently learned that I have Theory of Computation homework initial attempt due tomorrow that I haven't even started...so much for being on top of things...

UPDATE (5-3-10 8:50AM): Octavia attempt #2 = failed. He said it was better though!

~Pat

Start of an Endeavor

More often than not I find myself not remembering things that I do on a day to day basis. I am not sure if my brain is memory deficient, but I have a pretty poor memory. I have decided to take on Project365. This project encourages you to take a picture everyday and post it (perhaps with a small description) as a journal of your everyday life. I hope that I have the endurance to persistent through this giant undertaking.

I am not actually starting Project365 yet, as I'd love this project to encompass my entire senior year at Gustavus Adolphus College, but I'll blog on here as a warm-up throughout the month of May.

Thanks for listening,

~Patrick

What Do All The Labels Mean?

The sole purpose of this post is for me to keep track of what all of my labels mean.

Animals: Labeled post contains an animal photo.
Assistant Snapper: Labeled post contains a photo that was not taken by me.
Bonus Images: Labeled post contains more than one image.
Card/Board Games: Labeled post mentions Card or Board Games.
Computer Science: Labeled post mentions Computer Science related material.
Educational: Labeled post attempts to educate the readers in photographic topics.
Family: Labeled post mentions a family member (explicitly or implicitly).
Flowers: Labeled post contains a flower photo.
Food: Labeled post contains a food photo.
Friends: Labeled post mentions a friend (explicitly or implicitly).
Guthrie: Labeled post mentions the Guthrie theater in Minneapolis. (A subset of the Theatre label)
Lazy Day: Labeled posts picture was not taken on the day posted. An old picture was added this post.
Patty: Labeled post mentions my girlfriend Patty (explicitly or implicitly).
Photoshoots: Labeled post happened on a photoshoot day.
Theatre: Labeled post mentions theatre. (explicitly or implicitly)
Theatre Thursday: Labeled post is or talks about Theatre Thursday (a picture of the Anderson theatre stage every Thursday during the school year).
Ultimate: Labeled post mentions my favorite sport to play Ultimate Frisbee.
Video Games: Labeled post mentions a Video Game.
What Do The Labels Mean: Labeled post is this post.

If you find anything that is mis-labeled or should be labeled, I will take you on a trip to Caribou to buy you a drink. (One trip per person).

Later,
~Pat