sometimes I hate modern society.

I just read this lovely article about running barefoot and here's what I have decided:
When I am older, I am going to buy a ranch or something in the country,
with lots of fields,
far away from people,
and just run around barefoot there all the time.
I wonder how dangerous it would be to run barefoot in New York City...

current song obsession.

So I've been a fan ever since I discovered it a week or two ago.
It reminds me of my life back at home.
It reminds me of wishing to run away.
Well, I ran away.
Still getting used to it.
Still feeling melancholy whenever listening to this song.
Enjoy.

Angus & Julia Stone: Big Jet Plane.



Also, the original video is very cute/good in my opinion, but Angus and Julia Stone don't allow embedding, so here's a link to it!

my experience in new york thus far.

So the reason I've been absent from posting lately is because I have been getting ready for college. I have finally arrived in New York City as an NYU freshman. If you're a local, feel free to hate me, I understand. Anyway, my roommates are all right. My best friend so far is a feisty lesbian from Texas, which is pretty awesome in my opinion, but I may be overly happy about it. I doubt anyone else thinks it's that cool. However, she's hilarious and her personality is what makes her so great anyway. Everyone else here seems pretty friendly. I am on a really awesome floor and I like all the people on it so far, even if it's 75% girls. And I also have a great view of the city.

As far as events and adventures go, I haven't been disappointed that much. Or almost at all. It's still welcome week here so all the days are fully packed with events and things to do, and if there isn't something to go learn and see, people usually want to hang out and EXPLOOOORE (ooooh!). That's alright though, because I'm one of those fags who is determined to known the city too and is set on exploring it as well. In fact, I already have a metro monthly pass.

Personally, I am determined to learn as much as I can while I'm here. I was already pretty impressed with the fact that our mandatory welcome event was held in Radio City Music Hall, where Kristen Johnson gave us all a hilarious performance in the form of a welcome speech. I also saw Michael C Anthony convince me that hypnosis works in the most hilarious way ever. Furthermore, I went to a comedy show where two pretty funny guys made mostly mediocre jokes about not being white. Also, luckily enough, some of my floormates and I got to meet and chat with Jared Leto for a minute or two, which was pretty mindblowing, just because I didn't expect to already see a celebrity on my third day here. Oh, and let's not forget the club me and two of my friends went to on our first night here, when we got ripped off on drinks but had a pretty stellar time. The most hilarious, and disturbing, part of that night was when a girl took off her panties and started dry humping and making out with a guy she just met less than 3 feet away from me. AWESOME!

My only real problem so far has been the food. Although the dining halls have pretty good food and do their best to maintain a variety for us, it feels very much like high school. In fact, the mandatory welcome event and the "convocation" for Gallatin both felt very much like start-of-the-year assemblies as well. I'm not into that. I always hated lunch and I slept through 95% of the assemblies in high school. Hopefully I won't have to go through that shit anymore.

Overall, I am pretty happy here. I can barely get a minute alone, but I'm sure that once classes start I'll have more time to myself and will be even happier. Pictures to come soon!

P.S. - check out my flickr. I have a bunch of awesome new pictures posted, and will hopefully catch up on posting everything else soon, too.

don't trip, stumble.

I cannot describe how much I love this program/application/web tool, whatever the hell it is.
I discovered StumbleUpon many a year ago, and I can personally say that it changed my life.

How it works: Basically, you sign up for an account and choose from hundreds of categories that you're interested. Based on what you choose, Stumble will take you to pages on the internet that you have likely not seen before.
Even better, when you're just not in the mood for looking at pages about your religion or something, you can choose what specific category of pages you want to browse through.

A tip:
Over the years I learned that if you just go to a page that you didn't stumble upon and like it (sometimes you'll be making a discovery, sometimes not), the program will add it to the queue of what kind of pages to throw at you. It's pretty important to let it know what you do and don't like, by the way.

Also, if you already have Firefox (which is totally the best internet browser in my opinion and you should definitely get it if you're using something lame like IE), definitely get the stumble upon toolbar. It'll always be there, so it takes less effort for you to start stumbling. I have it and love it!

So in sum, if you want to learn stuff or just see different content on the net with minimal effort, get this. I can't tell you how many hours I've spent stumbling late into the night and how much this has improved my life.

let's get busy.

Wow, so I've been really occupied lately. I have so much to do! I want to write some new posts for here, update some stuff for this blog in general, read a million books and magazines that I bought recently, clean my room, make some art for my friends, take photos, etc. I only have a month to do all of that! And then it's off to that dreamy place called New York City...

Anyway, here are some pictures from a shoot I did with Jackie. We decided to go downtown and both of us stayed up all night so that we wouldn't over sleep for the sunrise... It was an adventure getting there, but I'm glad everything worked out.

Also, here are some shots from another photo shoot done at sunrise with Jackie and Emily. I think I mentioned it in a previous post.

monday morning music.

Just listen. Don't even worry about watching the video unless you'd like to know the lyrics.

I've been feeling an obscene love for Tokyo Police Club recently and I'm not afraid to admit it.

just came in.

Newest and most awesome purchase! I just got this from my friend for $20 and I can't wait to get film for it. This camera is called a Holga 120n and it's basically all plastic, all toy. However, these babies produce some of the coolest pictures out there. I'm beyond excited to see how pictures taken with this will turn out!
I encourage everyone to get a camera like this, just because it's extremely fun to experiment and is super cheap.

Update: I got some black and white film for it and am getting colored film as soon as it comes in! Woooo!

warm-up for pictures at dawn.

Today was my first day back from vacation and I was fortunate enough to take pictures of the lovely Emily and Jackie at sunset. However, we only had an hour since it was very unexpected and rushed, so we are planning to take pictures at sunrise! Words cannot explain how excited I am for it. In the meantime, here are some pictures.

You can see the rest on my flickr.

current song obsession.

why I hate snapshots.

For over two years now, I secretly yearned for a nice DSLR. It began with Black and White Photography, a class I took as a sophomore in high school. I dived into a love for how aperture, ISO, and shutter speed cooperate to create visual wonder. The ability to direct the viewer's attention wherever I wanted with manual focus captivated my interest more than anything. The power to do that escaped my hands when I used point-and-shoot cameras, which I had been accustomed to until then. I kept all this secret from my parents until graduation night. I hoped they would buy me the DSLR as a present. The idea would have been an easy sell, but I kept (accidentally) breaking very important rules in our household. Regardless, after numerous arguments and persuasion techniques, I finally got what I wanted.

Within less than a month, my parents planed a vacation. I looked forward to this for several reasons: I love traveling, I escape (almost) everyone at home for a week or two, and new locations provide for the perfect opportunity to improve my photography skills.

At every location we visited (and there were many), my parents kept asking me to record our experiences via photograph. Previous to this vacation, pictures of people grinning in front of something never bothered me. However, after taking an exceedingly large amount of them, I realized something: I really hate snapshots.

Why, you ask? Why does such a simple type of photo enrage me so?

Well, for one, I hate snapshots because I don't consider them to be photography. I define photography as an art where the person behind the lens chooses to capture something they are interested in that most other people wouldn't notice or get to see. In my pictures, I aim to expose the beauty in the ordinary and the extraordinary. Yet, when I look at something beautiful and my mom jumps in front of me exclaiming, "Take a picture of me!" and grins, inspiration plummets. Why is it so accepted to be such attention whores? (I'm not trying to call my mom, specifically, an attention whore!) I understand portraits and landscapes, and a mix of both, where a person is interacting with the environment in an interesting way. Nonetheless, I can't bear to look at, or take, pictures that express no real emotion or have no idea behind them other than "HEY! LOOK AT ME!"

Not only do snapshots express a need for attention, but they also lack imagination. It's cool that you went somewhere this summer and you took pictures, but I don't understand why you have to be in them. Traveling makes for a great experience, but that snapshot makes for a dull representation of it. I'd say I'm sorry to break it to you, but I'm really not.

At first, I kept quiet about my resentment of snapshots (I never voice my opinions immediately after forming them, do I?). When I finally confessed my hatred of them to my parents, they wrote me off and instructed me to take the pictures anyway because these are THEIR memories. The thing is, though, that no one cares about their memories but them. Which is nice, but when my parents send a picture to my grandma back in Lithuania, she isn't going to care if my dad is standing in front of a waterfall or if it's just the waterfall. Someone's face in front of a beautiful landscape simply pulls the attention away from what is behind them. The shots evolve from appreciating nature, so appreciating oneself.

So next time you're on vacation, or just taking pictures in general, please either leave yourself out or be creative about how you incorporate yourself into your environment, because I, for one, will not care for the photo otherwise.



P.S. - Don't get me wrong, I love people in photos. I just wish it was creative. Admit it, people smiling in pictures almost never makes for a quality image.