I'll Soon Be Class-ified

So the class that I was on the waitlist for at NYU had an opening and I signed up. I'm pretty excited about it since it's a digital photography shooting workshop. I'm crossing my fingers that my DSLR gets back from the shop in time. If not, I'll make do with my point and shoot. I'm just excited to learn. I checked out the professor's website and it looks like he went to Vietnam at some point too. This is his Bio:
Bruce Byers BA; Instructor. Professional Photographer; http://www.brucebyers.com/ http://www.streetmoments.com/
Short but sweet I suppose. It's interesting to see a professional photographer and the things they have in their portfolio. I don't know why I expect to see things that are a little more flamboyant and not so everyday, but I will be interested to learn what other people think makes a good picture. To me, a good picture is one that tells a story or makes you think or feel something. Maybe I'm trying to say a good picture is one that gets a reaction from the audience? That doesn't seem quite right though. Well, I'll let you all know once I find out, and we can follow my picture taking progress to see if I become a "photographer" after my 8 classes.

I have mosquitos in my house from time to time. I have no idea how they get in but they eat me alive. I think it's just one at a time and that one hunts me down and torments me all evening. I really am mosquito bait. I can go out in the backyard for one minute and come in with 5 bites. Yes, I've timed it. I don't know why they like to eat me, but I itch like crazy, and large red dots all over including on my face just aren't attractive. I don't use smelly things so I don't know what it is about me, they don't seem to bother Scott. Last night I was out collecting some leaves for a workshop at work, which turned out really cute by the way. I'll have to take a picture and show you. And I was fully clothed and I got 2 bites on my rear! I don't know if you really needed to know that, but I am trying to convey how serious my mosquito attracting condition is. I do own repellent, even some stuff that is 99% deet, crazy strong and probably awful, but I don't want to get all slicked up every time I want to spend five minutes in my own backyard. I guess that's one good thing about the weather cooling down. At least the mosquitos will go away, though it's still 80 around here today.

Trivia for the day: There are over 3,000 species of mosquitoes worldwide! I think every one of them is out to get me. I wonder how many species I've been bitten by.

Volley Bug

It's the start of volleyball season and we played our first regular season game. It doesn't look like we're headed for the championship just yet, but you never know, we may gain some momentum as the season goes on. Scott came and spectated and walked me home. He's our biggest fan. When we got home there was a very large Praying Mantis on the door. Probably almost as big as my hand. I used to love bugs like these when I was a kid. Though in New Mexico they didn't grow nearly as large. I see bugs like this that make me think of my high school biology mandatory bug collection. If I'd had an East Coast relative I could have scored extra points for extra big bugs. Instead our freezer was just full of little bugs. Haha I wasn't the best at killing them though, I wouldn't do the cotton ball with alcohol because they always got stuck to the cotton. I'd just stick them in the freezer. Once I caught a bumble bee and put it in the freezer. When I took it out again it came back to life! Who knew hibernation worked so well?

Trivia for the day: Honey was early man's first sweetener and it was so valued that it could be used to pay taxes in some cultures. (But honeybees don't hibernate, they just stick close together for warmth.)