Melissa and DJ's Wedding

Just a quick snapshot of the wedding I shot this weekend. And for the bride (and anyone else who cares) these pictures have not been touched up or touched at all. Even though Brian has downloaded photoshop onto my new computer (aka. My Precious) but he has yet to teach me how to operate it.
So for now these are just a few pictures from yesterday.

The bride getting ready...



A cute kissing shot (there are many of these)...



The new couple...



These two were so easy to take pictures of, their personalities just shine...



A shot on a rustic and slightly poopy bench...



And a shot I stole from my sister...



So hope everyone likes these. I certainly had fun shooting these two!

Summer work

I know that some of you have heard, but not all of you so I thought I'd take a minute and fill-in any lacking information about what Kelly and I will be doing this summer. Kelly will be working at the movie theater again putting in a few more hours now that she won't have classes to worry about. She will have research to worry about because she is going to get started on some preliminary research for the research she will be doing this next school year in order to graduate. I don't really know all of the details but I'm sure she could fill you in a little more. Kelly will also be working at a new job she was offered dealing with equipment checkout that the university does for local high schools...or something like that. Again, I'm not too clear on the details. This summer isn't going to be that busy with it, more or less just getting acquainted with what they do so she can put in more time this coming fall when she will be working there for work/study funds she was awarded. Finally, as if she wasn't doing enough already, when she isn't doing all of that she will be babysitting Evalie Rippy while Stacey is going to start going back to work at the theater and Jeff is hopefully going to be getting an internship in Spokane.

As for me, I'll be working this summer at the library putting in hours on the evenings and weekends. During the day I'll be taking summer architecture studio, pending on a few circumstances, and also working as a research assistant for Frank Jacobus, my current studio professor. I'm really excited for the research assistantship for many reasons. It will look great on a resume and the research will be interesting (we will be looking into defining an architectural genome that could then be used to develop design computing software, which has many different applications). Most of all I'm really excited to be a part of architectural research. Here at the university you can see that many of the professors are dabbling with different things they are researching but for the most part the student body isn't involved, unless their research involves using us as "guinea pigs." This is an opportunity where students are integrally involved in the research. I think something that has helped with this is the fact that we got a grant to fund the research and therefore have money to pay us. The interesting thing that really helped in getting me the job is the fact that I have the experience with the library. Frank was really pleased that I had that experience with the library because much of this research at this stage will be finding out what other schools are involved with similar projects and getting enough background research done so that we can find further funding in the form of other grants.

Also, if you haven't noticed already, check out my "drawing board" blog for details on the ICMA competition and my fire station design. The link should be in the upper left of this page and if that doesn't work, http://vandalarchitect.blogspot.com, is the address.

The Lundbergs

Kelly and I recently drove out to St. John (between Pullman and Spokane) to (re)do a photo shoot for the Lundbergs, Jeff's sister Kelly's family. We originally tried to get some family photos for them last fall when they had just adopted the newest member to their family Marcos.

However, due to weather, lighting and kids that wouldn't really cooperate we didn't get too many good family shots. We did get some great candid shots of the kids, especially birthday cake shots of Marcos (he turned 1), but we still needed some group family shots. So this time, rather than trying a Mexican restaurant in Spokane we just went out to their house. I thought it might be worse getting the kids to cooperate there, but on the contrary they we much more mellow and easier to work with...although I'm not sure their mom thought so.

Here are some more we took. I'm currently going through them and trying to pick out the best ones and touch them up a bit, but these ones were just too good to not show them off right away.

Interactive Flash

Look at what I learned to do at work tonight...click here.

Tagged!

I was tagged, thanks Jeff. I really despise that fact that I now feel obligated to write 7 random things about myself. But in the spirit of things, here goes...

1. I hate chain letters/junk mail/facebook apps/anything that tries to get more people involved by a snowball effect. I will not have bad luck for the next 15 years if I don't send this on to 15 people in the next 15 minutes.

2. I own more shoes than any man should probably own...but they all serve a specific purpose you can't expect a man to play indoor soccer without indoor soccer shoes.

3. I support the WSU Cougars just as much as I do the Idaho Vandals, as far as wearing that support. But to be truthful I only own as much Vandal gear as I do because I feel I owe it to myself to have just as many Vandal things and Cougar things...but as far as style goes, WSU has U of I beat.

4. I will not be a Disneyland virgin for long...15 days, and counting

5. I never thought that in creating this blog that I would post as much as I do. I figured I was doing Kelly a favor by creating it and she would take after her sister and be the main blogger. Not that it's anything against Kelly. She really does post when she can. The only reason I have time to do it is because at the library things get really slow on Friday nights and after a week of classes I'd do anything other than work on homework.

6. We are trying to get the Dean of the Library to close the Library at 8 pm on Fridays because the computer labs shut down for maintenance at that time and therefore hardly anyone comes into the library. For example, between 8:00 and 11:00 there have been 30 people walk in or out of the library. That's not 30 people that I've helped at the desk, that's thirty pairs of legs that have triggered the gate counter. They could have just come in to use the bathroom, dropped off a book, or research the average air speed of an unladen swallow. African or European?

7. One of those patrons that I have actually helped at the desk didn't think we had a copy of the Torah because all he could find were books that had basically the Old Testament. I had to explain that what he found probably was the Torah and that the Old Testament and the Torah contain many of the same writings. Before I told him this he said he couldn't find a copy of the Bible either. While this may not be random info about me...I did know, and find it quite funny, that in the Library of Congress cataloging system religious texts are found under the two letters B and S. So the Torah's call number was BS896.A1P45.

Since you can see from #1 I am totally against tagging people and making them write 7 random things about themselves I am not tagging anyone. Plus, anyone that reads this and has a blog has already been tagged. But, if you are reading this and don't have a blog then I strongly encourage you to create one. Blogger, is pretty good. Kelly's sister Traci uses one called Blogsome. A google search will give you tons of other options and I'm betting it will take you less time than it took me to write this post. Happy blogging, and you can post your URL to your new blogs in the comments.

Breaking news

The Palouse has been hit hard this week with snow. Sunday we got about 6 inches. Tuesday we got about 6 more. Last night and today we've gotten around 7 and it's still currently snowing. Both U of I and WSU have closed for the day. From what I understand this is only the third time since the U of I opened in 1889 that the University has closed due to weather. It closed once back in the 50's due to snow, later because of flooding so students could help sandbag, and today because of snow. Kelly is still on campus because she had some early classes before they announced the closure, but she's on her way home by way of the nuclear reactor. Actually WSU is still open until 10am, right now it's about 9:30. U of I closed around 8:00am. I was still asleep because I don't have class until 2:00 but my supervisor at the library called to let me know that the university was closed and so was the library. I'll try to get out and take some pictures to post so you can all get an idea of how much snow we've gotten.

Escapando a Karl Marx (Escaping Karl Marx)

I have a few minutes before I have to go to work and since I haven't written an entry for a while I figured this is as good of time as any. Plus, right now I'd do anything to stop reading this article for Spanish (Like I would understand Marxism, "economic base" or "social superstructure" and how they relate to social disruption and conflict in English anyway, and he wants us to read it in Spanish!?).

School started a couple of weeks ago. This semester should be a little easier than the last. Instead of project intensive courses I just have a lot of reading to do and papers to write. I'll be honest...I can fake a paper a lot easier than I can fake a project. On the other hand I can stand to work on a project longer than a paper. I think it has to do with being able to leave one portion for a while and come back to it later while still working on the same project. For me no matter what part of a paper I'm working on, it's all the same. I still have my studio course, I will every semester, so you can periodically check my other blog for updates on that.

Work is pretty much the same as always. I forgot to mention that I was selected as one of two student employees of the year at the library. I was also given $100 of scholarship money for achieving that. Plus they decided to nominate me for the University-wide student employee of the year award. Nominations and letters of recommendation, etc. are due on Monday so I won't know for a while how that turns out, but you can be sure I'll update you all on that as well.

That's pretty much all the noteworthy happenings of my life (maybe Kelly will fill you in on hers, hint, hint). I'd better get back to Marx.