Catching up

Ok, wow - seriously, I am so bad at this. I just don't have time to sit and write long things; I barely have time to write a few paragraphs on a photo on flickr. But there were a few things I just had to blog about. So here goes. :)

First of all, I didn't realize that I hadn't updated on my husband's military status. I thought I'd blogged about the latest happenings, and when I visited my blog this morning found out that I hadn't. Oops. :)



(text below copied/pasted from what I wrote under the photo on flickr)

His Next-To-Last Day as a Sailor

Yep, you read that right. We couldn't believe it either. He arrived home Sunday, April 20, still without a discharge date (that we knew of). Closest we knew was either July 30 (his LES still had that as his ETS date) or May 31 (for some reason, that was the date given on his flight-home orders). He was told before leaving the ship that he was to start TAP (Transition Assistance Program - something every Sailor goes through before discharge to give him information and help transitioning to civilian life) class that Monday. I was upset and confused - they recommended (stressed strenuously) that spouses should go with their Sailor because so much information is presented, and the spouse might have questions, so we were planning on attending one sometime in the middle of this month (May). But they just dropped him in one the day after he got back, and we had no clue why. But he had no choice, so he went without me. It was only four days long, so Friday he reported to the Yeoman Chief on base for his TAD assignment. But there he was told he wasn't reporting to supply, but to TPU (Transient Personnel Unit) which is supposed to basically be for people just arriving to (like from boot camp) or departing (as in, the process of being discharged from) their duty station. The chief thought somehow there must have been a screw-up, but we'd figure it all out the next Monday.

Well, it got all figured out. Heh. He was told Monday that his check-out (as in, completely checking out of the Navy) was Tuesday. Thanks for a little warning, huh?!? :)

So... next day, after running to UPS store to get his medical and dental records copied (he doesn't get to keep the originals - they're shipped off to a vault somewhere), we drive on base for the last time; get the proper forms to get copies of the kids' and my records, drop him at PSD for his check out... and a few minutes later he walks out sans ID card... the newest former Nuke EM/Missile Tech/Storekeeper US Navy Sailor.

So um... what are we doing now? Well, thanks to our tax return and the half-separation pay we received, we have money to live on until he finds a job. Though we are now paying the (astronomically high) civilian rent rate - given that it's privatized-Military housing, they obviously want to get our place opened up asap, so rent is stinking ridiculous and they're seriously pressuring us to get a notice-to-vacate turned in. However, the fact we still don't have a place to move to, nor a job to go to, hinders that for us a *little*. Thankfully, as I said, we have enough to live on for a while, and we have up to 6 mos. to use the last Navy/FISC move we get (God forbid we have to be here that long) - though we don't have any medical/dental coverage right now, of course. We're praying and trusting God (and Greg is doing all kinds of job searches, looking high and low, online and off) for a house and a job - and in the meantime we're trying to pack up what we can and then when the time comes, we'll just have the movers come and pack out the rest and move us to our "final" destination.

I was going to list his training/experience/qualifications here, but if anyone's interested to know, they can flickrmail/email me and I'll get my husband in touch to discuss specifics. I will say he's looking in the electronics technician field, the security field, and the mission field. :) Yes, we both feel called to be missionaries, and have a heart for young people especially - they are the future after all, and they are the special target of those who would corrupt our society and lead it into eventual destruction. (Speaking of... I just finished reading "The Marketing of Evil" by David Kupelian, and what an eye-opening book it is. If you ever wanted to get at the heart of the matter, and see things from "behind enemy lines" I highly and heartily recommend this book.) I've always felt called to Africa, though I loved India when I was there - but right now we both feel a great urgency for our own nation - the USA. But I'll talk more about that later on.

Anyway, so that's what's new with us. Things here have just been too busy for me to be on flickr - last Sunday was our 6th anniversary so we went up to our favorite local getaway (well, local to where we used to live), Morgan Hill Retreat in Poulsbo, while my mom watched the kids - and just had time to ourselves. Talking, praying, seeking God's will for our future, and enjoying each others' company (and enjoying my anniversary present/investment for the photog business - I'll talk about that later. :) Most of the time here at home Greg spends looking for a job, trying to find a house, and trying to get ready to move when he finds them. :) I do hope to catch up a bit on my flickring, but I won't be up to speed for a while, I'm sure. Hopefully everything falls into place quickly! In the meantime, I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying some spring weather!

My 2yo is putting her dolls and multiple stuffed animals on my lap. See, I just don't ever get more than about a minute to sit down and do anything. ;) Which is why I have a Twitter account. My updates are protected, first of all for privacy reasons, and second-of-all because I got sick of spammers and weirdo/pervos following me. Yeah... But if you're not a spammer or weirdo or just collecting names on your following list, just request and I'll probably accept/follow you. I've found some really cool ppl on Twitter, and I love that I can just check in really quick and see what everyone's up to, and jot down what I'm doing at the mo. or add a link to something I found online that I want to share.

Speaking of, you have to watch/listen to these next couple videos. I don't necessarily agree with everything the Health Ranger (Mike Adams of NaturalNews.com) has to say - he's into some New Age stuff and seems a bit caught up in the "man-created global warming crisis" thing - but other than that, this guy is awesome. I read Natural News pretty religiously, and get the email updates and everything. I am so thankful that websites like this are out there - if only more people read them! Anyway, he's now made two hip-hop songs which he's licensed for non-commercial use. I'll post the videos below (please watch! :) and the links to the pages he's posted more info on (he also has links where you can download the songs and ringtones.)


I Want My Bailout Money! **Language Warning: There is one descriptive obscenity in the song**

It's humorous, but in a sad way. Sad, because he speaks the truth. Thankfully he does it in a way that will hopefully get some people's attention, and maybe spread the word. ;)


SSRIs - S.S.R.Lies

This one, while still being entertaining (in the sense that it has a great beat, and he is a surpisingly good rap artist) is much heavier. This time the truth isn't about our economy, but our very lives and those of our children. I wish more parents were wise to the facts. :( Please visit Natural News and read up on how to keep healthy in these chemically-saturated times.

On that note, have you done any reading on chemtrails? Sometimes called chaff (depending on their contents) they are part of an aerosol assault on our air and environment. Anyone who knows me knows I'm not an environmentalist in the usual sense of the word, but what is happening right above our heads is a travesty and people need to wake up and start looking up. We no longer have the clear blue skies and fluffy clouds I remember from my childhood. Unfortunately, most people are so absorbed in their personal electronic devices that they rarely look each other in the eye, much less pay attention to what's happening over their heads. Check out my Watch the Skies set for photos and more information (plus links to other websites that I highly recommend keeping tabs on).

Ok, well my 2yo needs some diaper attention, so I'd better end this for now. I'll be writing again soon - I hope. ;)

Flickr Launches Video!!!

When I first heard flickr was thinking about launching video, I was less than impressed. Like many others, I was afeared they would turn it into another incarnation of YouTube; or that the hordes who already upload *ahem* restricted content as "safe and public" would suddenly find a new playground for their less-than-family friendly video content. I was actually dreading it.

Then over time, the idea started to appeal to me more. A place I could upload the short videos I take (not very often, granted) of my kids outside or whatever. And then I got invited to take part in the secret beta testing phase and I was hooked. I've already found a ton of videos from the others who tested that I adore. And the idea that my husband (who is currently on deployment on a ship out in the Pacific somewhere) would get to watch videos of his children while he's gone - it was a dream come true.

Then I find out today he can't get flash player on the ship's computers, so bummer. :(

But anyway, now everyone *else* can see the videos, including his grandparents and other family members who live across the country, or my mom who lives across the water, or whomever I want to share them with!

Naturally there is a pretty big outcry going on in the Forum, where all sorts of things are being said, faster than I can keep up with. The regular doomsayers and "I'm leaving flickr right now as soon as I get my money back!!!" type of posts of course... but there are at least some sane people in there too. Not all of them are thrilled but at least they've got enough common sense to try to calm the hysteria of the others... though I don't know if it's exactly working. You know, when someone thinks the sky is falling...

Anyway, here is the very first video I uploaded to flickr. I hope you enjoy. :) It isn't very good quality, taken with my P&S back in '05. My daughter and husband having a "conversation" at Chuck E. Cheese's:



And a couple of my other favorite videos from around the flickrsphere:

Narcoleptic Cat - I think this is fast becoming the number 1 most popular flickr video so far. :D

I have a recorder! - a super cool pairing of lightplay, an adorable little one, and awesome editing. :)

Chicken - it's hilarity is it's pointlessness; I mean, it's just funny. Period. Ha!

Gone all Friends & Family

Yep, I've decided to completely turn all photos of my kids on flickr, to friends/family only. :( Unfortunately, hundreds of stolen-from-flickr photos of kids are showing up in various places 'round the net, most notably on Orkut (google's own social-networking site) and also on MySpace. I'm not as popular as some of the other people who've had photos stolen, but there's also some new to flickr who've had photos taken. The majority of my kids' photos have been f/f for a while now, mostly to protect them from viewing by less-than-savory people, but I've shared some of them with the public; not anymore. To be honest, I'd been considering it anyway. Some of them had showed up in Explore, and been extremely popular - and ended up being misused and reposted by people pulling them through the API. Even though I've had downloading turned off for non-contacts, and 3rd-party API searches turned off, direct feeds were still pulling them and occasionally I'd find them on some odd site I never heard of before. I got major crap from one person after I asked him to remove my photos and let him know he was violating many of the API's TOS, so from now on, I just share with those I trust. Sad, but what else can I do?

Yay! Good News!

Self-Portrait
Originally uploaded by FlyButtafly

I haven't taken any new SPs for a while, so I decided to use this one from a while ago to share my fun news. :)

When I joined flickr almost three years ago, I would never have expected to be where I am now, as far as photography is concerned. I only joined because I had just started a blog, (sadly not updated very often nowadays - too much time on flickr ;) and it said I could post my photos from flickr to the blog. It didn't take long till I was hooked, and then a few months later I got my first digital camera. Then I learned about Camera Tossing, and posted my very first attempt. It was one of my most popular images on flickr ever - still is in fact - and it was my very first paid-for published photo. (I was interviewed for and it was published in a story about camera tossing in the Washington Post.)

I was also contacted by Jim Dever of Evening Magazine (a local entertainment/news show), to do a segment on my camera tossing. That was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I don't have the video (so kindly recorded for me by KnowWonNose) uploaded anywhere on the 'net - maybe when flickr goes video. ;)

I've also licensed 8 different images for use on ExperienceWA.com, Washington State's tourism website.

And now, I'm gearing up (literally - I have some serious gear to buy) for a wedding this winter! My sister's best friend has asked me to shoot her wedding this December. This will be the first time I've been hired to do photography, and I am so excited. I've long wanted to do photography professionally, and I'm slowly, finally, seeing my dream come to fruition.

Of course, I had to decide on a name for my business, if in fact I wanted to have a business. I wracked my brain, trying to come up with something memorable, pretty, and representative of me in some way. And something that wasn't already in use, obviously. I originally was thinking something like DownyThistle Imagery - I love thistles; the color, the way they look, and they represent my Scottish heritage. But it just didn't seem quite right. Well, one morning, I was driving home from taking my husband to work, and I saw the mist from the Snohomish River hanging in the air over the water and the nearby strawberry fields. Strawberries are a big crop where I live. (I have yet to find a suitable place to pull off I-5 and take a photo of the magical sight; but I'm determined one of these days, before the clouds set in for the next 7 mos., to do so.) As I looked at the scene before me, the name StrawberryMist Photography came to me. So I've decided to go with it.

Of course, without my husband's support and patience, and my kids' tolerance of my camera constantly in their faces, I'd never have gotten this far.

But now, who knows where I'll go from here? :)

Bye, JPG!

Bye, JPG!
Originally uploaded by FlyButtafly.

Recently, JPG Magazine went through an overhaul. Apparently, Paul, one of the partners at JPGmag, decided to abandon what made it so successful to begin with - along with the magazine's founders Derek and Heather, and the first 6 issues - and rewrote (or more appropriately, erased) the history of the magazine.

I think it's galling, and I can not conceive any rational reason for doing so. There are so many people who've been a part of it from the beginning, and completely disregarding and dishonoring those of us who contributed and were part of a once-great community is going to do nothing but harm the magazine we loved. Good bye JPG, sorry to see you do this to yourself. But if this is how you wanna play, then good riddance.

The real story of JPG
Heather's post
What the 'About' page used to say
The new 'About' page
8020 Publishing's post

I'm just thankful I was able to be a part of the group and magazine way back when - before it decided to sacrifice its parents and feed on itself. I even had a photo published in issue 6, "Oops!" - before they switched gears and went downhill. I guess all I have to say now, is Bye!

Camera-Tossing for the (TV) Camera

Photo by FlyButtafly (formerly TaGurit).

So if you're thinking what I think you might be thinking ;) - yeah, that's Jim Dever from Evening Magazine. Ok, well you're probably only thinking it if you happen to live in WA (western Washington at that) and tune in to channel 5 at 7pm on weeknights.
Edit: I just realized it also airs on NW Cable News at 9pm on weeknights - I don't have cable, so I didn't know. I apologize. :)

Anyway, it's a great show, and Jim usually does the more entertaining bits - whether it's breakdancing or bobsledding or anything in between. Well, he contacted me recently to help with a story on camera tossing. (Ok, well - an interview anyway, and to throw the cameras around.) We met up the 14th (of this month) in Evergreen Park in Bremerton, and he did a filmed interview with me and then we did some tossing.

How'd the interview go? Well, I'll just say I do much better when I'm scripted and on-stage. *Acting* as someone else in front of people is so much easier than just being myself and thinking on my feet. ;) I'll never be one of those impromptu actors who ad lib all over the place and are complete geniuses when they do so (not to imply I was acting... but it's just to illustrate the fact that I have to sit and think to come up with *good* stuff usually). I can write stuff, and I can recite stuff, and I can come up with sarcastic one-liners and stuff like that... but when it comes to just being me in front of a camera, I geek it all up. I just know when this airs I'm going to be just shaking my head at myself, going - did I have to say it that way? Oh it would've been so much better if I'd done/said this rather than that... and on and on. We're always our own worst critics though, aren't we? ;)

Jim was really cool though, and I never felt ill at ease. He seems like a regular guy (albeit one on TV every weeknight ;) who just has a really fun job and a hilarious sense of humor (and of course, he is one of those who can just come up with stuff right off the top of his head. Gosh I hope I didn't screw any footage up for him...)

As far as the tossing goes - we had a lot of fun with that. :) I tossed it for a while, while they shot from all different angles (well, Jim didn't shoot it obviously - Tim, the camera-man did all of that) and I tossed a couple different cameras. Got my first-ever injury (minus the bumps on the head from my little dearly-deceased P&S that I used to bounce around in the van while we were on the road) that day:

A camera that I was borrowing has little metal triangle-ish shaped loops on the sides for a strap. Well, I never toss with a strap (it gets in the way) and anyway, I somehow got sliced with one of the loops when I caught it. I hadn't even noticed until I was picking up my stuff so they could shoot in a different part of the park - I looked down and saw blood on my hand, and it was all over the pocket of my jeans too. Ouch! It's still there (on my hand, that is) and still sore, too. *Recommendation: Don't toss cameras that have little metal protruding things.*

Jim did great for a first-time tosser (I already know about the whole British slang term, so don't even go there ;) and only dropped it, um... a *few* times.

I even dropped mine (oops!) once... but only in the tanbark, so it was all good.*Recommendation: Until you're used to the way your camera handles in the air, practice tossing over soft surfaces!*


I had my new camera with me, and used it for the first tosses, but unfortunately I only have a 32mb memory card, so I wasn't able to get many images (I used to have a 512mb card... Goshdurnit, I just can't find it anywhere!) Here's a few I got:




Not spectacular, but the lighting conditions were unfortunately not the best for tossing that day. And I still hadn't gotten used to my camera, (I hadn't even read the manual yet!) so, well... And no, I'm not just making excuses! ;) (Seriously, lighting has a big role in how tosses come out. Too much light, and the shutter shuts too fast, or the image picks up too much light and it's all washed out.) Oh well. :) I did recently upload some tosses from my archives (I've got over 600 on my hard drive) that were from my old P&S though. Here's a sampling:



(click on any photo to see it in larger size)

I'll be posting a tutorial later, for those interested in trying themselves, along with a review for each of the cameras I've used so far. (Just so you know, I've only used Olympus - I just love their usability, versatility, ergonomics and - heck, everything!) :)

disclaimer: Please don't think I'm overstating my importance. I know it's just going to be a short piece, and everything - but heck, I'm still excited. :) And I know I'll enjoy it, however they put it together.
Thanks Jim, for the fun time and the opportunity to spread the word in WA about camera tossing. ;)

Camera-Toss: 1st Attempt

Yes, I've joined the ranks of Camera Tossers. :) Funny, I don't remember how I came across the group, but a couple days after I joined, they got FlickrBlogged and apparently popularity has just skyrocketed. Funny, I still hadn't tossed my camera yet... until about 5 days ago. All of a sudden, I thought - hey, why not just "do it" - so I did, in my living room. Turned the setting to "Night Shots" (long exposure) and turned off the flash, then just started hitting the button and tossing the cam. This was a shot from among my first attempts.

I cannot believe how popular this shot is. In the 4 days since I've posted it, it has surpassed my previously most-viewed photo (below) by almost 1000 views!!



And it has been faved almost as many times! I am so continually amazed. I mean, I like the shot too... but I never expected this to be so popular, considering the rest of my photostream photos stay around the low hundreds at most. But the rest of my CameraToss photos have also surpassed that mark within a couple days. Maybe it's just the idea of someone tossing their camera being such a novelty? Who knows. But I don't mind. :) It's sure alot of fun... as long as you don't drop the camera on its' way down!