modern blessings

I remember seeing the painting of the first pic above a lot in my childhood. It must have been at one of my grandma's because my mom claims it wasn't in our house. Anyway, Andrew and I went to  Roscoe's today and saw the second pic and thought it was very funny. The framed print was only $10 so I bought it. I don't believe I've actually purchased art in a restaurant or bar before. I'm happy with it.

We also tried Triumph Coffee which used to be Three Friends until the owner closed up the shop and my friend Emily reopened it. I'm looking forward to going back there more often!

What else?

We were hanging out at Roscoe's, waiting for the Far from the Madding Crowd matinee. Yesterday, we saw Ant-Man which was awesome and tomorrow, we've got plans with friends to go see Train Wreck. It's been close to 20 years since I've gone to movies back to back like this. With the global climate change, I could see it happening more often though.

my first photo voice

I use photos in this blog most of the time to illustrate my post. Sometimes the picture is the post and sometimes I include a picture just because I like it and not because it necessarily has anything to do with the post. I would like my pictures to be more purposeful than pretty though. I have had 1111 posts so I have a little experience with using photographs to illustrate a point. Therefore, this photovoice project should be easy for me.

Initially, I had a lot of ideas about how to portray the Mental Health issues regarding aging. Most of these ideas revolved around using human models but we're not supposed to have people be the focus of the picture so I've got to think outside the box.

For my first set, I included the above picture to illustrate isolation. I also a picture of a tombstone with two spouses on it with only one of them having a date of death to illustrate loss and grieving. I also found the concept of putting your name on a tombstone at the age of 56 to be disheartening. Even though your spouse dies, you don't have to just start counting down the days until your own death. I however am jaded on relationships and undying love and all of that so what do I know.

Anyway, my new thing for today was using the D2L program at school to submit these photographs.

What else?
I also visited the PSU hot tub first thing this morning for the first time this quarter. This is going to have to start happening more regularly. 

hunting the elderly

With the weekend being full of pedi's as well as birthday and pity parties, I didn't have any time to work on my homework and we had a lot of reading due this week, not to mention two photos and three short essays. Therefore, I took a sick day and just read all day until the afternoon when I went to shoot some older people in the park.

My initial concept for my first PhotoVoice picture for my class was to take a picture of an elderly person spending time with a dog at the park. The idea was to look at what brings about positive mental health for people as they are aging. For me (and I'm sure many others), dogs always make things better. They'll get people outside more, get them exercise, and provide them with a purpose, companionship & love. It was a bit weird trying to capture a picture without people knowing but I didn't want to ask because I'm too shy. Besides, the teacher said we weren't supposed to take pictures of faces so the person wouldn't be able to be identified. However, I also read through the syllabus and saw that the teacher didn't want a person to be the primary focus of the picture. So my hunt was in vain. At least I got all of my reading done and some other photos taken.

photo research

This is a very different school quarter for me. For one thing, I'm only taking one class. It's weird because I'm used to having my energies divided and now I can focus them on this one class. It's also different because it's so very specialized to one population and then there's the fact that I don't have any major papers due at all. My grades will be based upon simple one paragraph answers to questions about each of the readings and also upon photographs.

For this class, I'm going to be taking pictures that represent some aspect of aging. Tonight, we had our research instructor come to class for the first time and explain this project. I also selected Mental Health and aging. It's going to prove to be interesting and unique as well as refreshing. I love to take pictures anyway so the idea of getting graded on my photographic creativity is intriguing to me.

What else?
On Monday, I raised my bench press to a new high, 180 lbs!

On Tuesday, I tried Zach's Shack's new apple and sage veggie sausage. It was awesome. I talked to Zach himself about it for a while. He was never keen on the veggie dogs but he said he's addicted to the veggie sausages. Like I need another reason to keep coming back to this place. :)