dragon con!!!!

ok i'm finally here to post about dragon con. i'm not going to do it linear sorry. but i'll definitely highlight the awesomeness of the con.

- got to meet timothy zahn. and i got photo with him and he signed one of my books. he wrote the star wars books that are after movie 6. he wrote what would be 7,8,9. and they are the only books that are ok'd by lucas saying they are what happened after the movies (there's a picture of me with him on my flickr).
- got to meet tracy hickman and laura hickman. tracy hickman is one of the authors of the dragonlance series. laura hickman is his wife and has written some books with tracy. i got pictures of them and signatures.
- went to the stan lee panal. was amazing to see him. he's so absent minded but his work is amazing. he had just gotten back from shooting his cameo for the avengers movie.
-went to the lou ferrigno panel. he is one of the most positive people. he is all about making yourself connected to your body and being in a good positive life. it was pretty cool to see him. i think my dad was more excited about me seeing him then i was. hehe.
-went to the time travelers ball with greg, katie and rob. katie, rob and me dressed in steampunk (there's a picture of us on my flickr).
-saw greta win the intermediate level of the costume contest with her steampunk outfit (there's a picture of greta in her steampunk constume on my flickr).
-got to meet new people for i only new 2 of the 8 people on the trip.
-went to atlanta for the first time.
-bought some really cool swag. got an officially licensed wheel of time Aes Sedai ring. which means that robert jordan designed how the ring should look. got a captain america hoodie. got a captain america shot glass. got some bumper stickers: one is a wizard with a fire ball in one hand and the other is a smoldering gun and it says 'sometimes magic just doesn't finish the job', the other bumper sticker (pay attention travis) says 'there's nothing like a good full pipe at the end of the day'.
-saw some really cool constumes. there were some venture brothers, jarlaxe, mord siths, raistlin majere and Lauralanthalasa Kanan, captain america and red skull, a million harry potters and a million dr's from the different dr. who's, steampunk, star wars, star trek, firefly and sooooo much more. 
-they did a blood drive and me, greg and greta all gave blood. we got a tshirt as a thanks.
-now here are some photos.

dragon con

it's late and so all i can say for now is that dragon con was amazing! definitely going to have to make this a yearly thing. all the pictures i have up right now are on my flickr account. i'll post more when i actually post about dragon con.

deviantart

so for all of you who are into photography and whatnots, i have now created a deviantart page. feel free to go over there and check out my photos and others peoples work. i mostly shoot with film though, so i don't know how much of my stuff will be on there. but there is some. for from time to time i will break down and use a digital camera. hehe. here's the link: http://hugthetrees.deviantart.com/

it's also on my profile under 'my web page'.

writing photography

so i'm having a little bit of insomnia and i was hunting through the interwebs. and i found some cool photos that have to do with writing or reading in some way. i thought i would share them with everyone. all of these photos were taken by john carey. his website is fiftyfootshadows.net

tom waits book

Singer Tom Waits is to make his publishing debut next year with a book that combines his poetry with images of the homeless, according to the Guardian newspaper.
Hard Ground is described as a portrait of homelessness, combining Waits's words with images of people who "live on the hard ground."

This is the publishing debut for Waits, the eccentric troubadour who, after 40 years, dozens of film appearances and about 20 albums, has noticeably avoided committing himself to print. He remarked in a 1975 interview that poetry is "a very dangerous word."

"I don't like the stigma that comes with being called a poet," he said. "So I call what I'm doing an improvisational adventure or an inebriational travelogue."

Hard Ground is modelled on the 1941 classic, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, which combined James Agee's poetry and Walker Evans's photographs of Depression-era farmers.

Although this is Waits's first collaboration with O'Brien, the photographer has frequently taken pictures of the singer. He also shot the cover of Waits's recent album, Glitter and Doom Live.

Hard Ground is to be published by University of Texas in March 2011.

-Edmonton Journal, November 28, 2010

people reading around the world

steve mccury is a famous photojournalist that you would know best from this photo. well through his travels across the world, he has also taken photo's of people reading. mccurry says: "There’s an intimacy people have with a book and its author that is similar, what couples have. [Reading] is a common link in our shared humanity, a thing we all do that is regardless of where we are economically or socially." so i thought i would share some of his photo's that he took of people reading. you can find all of the photo's on his blog.

happy birthday to me!

today this blog is one year old! woot woot! i can't believe i've been doing this for a year. it doesn't seem that long. it started out as a simple blog for a story i was writing. then i decided to change the direction and write about all things to do with writing. adding along the way things that are going on with my writing.  for today's post i think i'm going to highlight different posts i have done over the year. so here are some of my favorite posts from this past year. 

the very first post i ever did
critics
tuna poem
celebrate banned books
the wheel of time turns
dr. horrible comic review
death
life is full of them
the first quoteables
world war z
the power of words
poetry coat
muse quoteables
poetry/art swap
a lighted carousel

wow, if you went back and read all of those, your amazing! thanks for sticking with me and i hope the next year is just as amazing as this past year has been. keep writing and keep reading. 

a lighted carousel - the final frontier

so today at work i brought my friend who took the carousel picture - i brought him the poem i had written to go with the picture. he said that he liked the poem. and he said he really liked the first line "safe in the dark" for that's not a normal thing. people don't normally say they are safe in the dark. i'm so glad that he liked the poem. and i'm so glad that he liked that line. it's one of my personal favorites of the poem and i think it's perfect for the beginning of it. so i gave him the poem since it was his picture that inspired me to write it. i just love that photo! all of his photo's were great but that one i just can't stop loving. just amazing! and just because i can't get over the picture i'm going to share it again.

jeremy also read the poem and he said he liked it. he didn't want to judge the photo yet for it was a picture taken of a picture. but he said that the poem made him think of a person who had died and their spouse is waiting for them on the other side and then at the end the couple are together. and even though that's not the thought i had behind the poem, i still like to hear what he thinks. it's always fun to hear what a person thinks a poem means. for you never know until the poet actually says what it means. i'm going to be stingy and not share. but hey that's ok. that's just how i roll (i can't believe i just wrote that).

ok i'm going to stop gushing about the photo. i just love it so much! and just so amazing that it inspired me. so my thanks go to my dear friend for letting me have the photo that has inspired me so much.

a lighted carousel part 2

well i have finished the poem. i just love the photo and i love that it inspired me to write. stuff like that is just the best. i love when i'm inspired instead of making myself sit down and write. so i thought i would share the photo again and then share the poem. hope you like it.

safe in the dark

all i see are the lights

shining on me

i reach out to them

they swirl past me

round and round and round

i sit and wait

for the right time to move

to grab

to take hold of

the lights

they guide me

round and round and round

the lights shine bright

your hand reaches out of the dark

takes hold of me

pulls me
into the light

you hold me tight

round and round and round

sharing the secrets of the light

a lighted carousel

last month i had mentioned that i swapped poetry for art with a friend of mine at work. here's the story if you don't remember. well this week i had brought in my photography to show him. we had been talking alot about art so i didn't mind too much showing him what i had done. i'm no where near being a professional and i wanted to know what he would think about it, since he actually went to school for art. he said he liked them and i hope he was telling the truth. well we had got to talking and so we decided on a photo swap. i would give him one of my photo's and he would give me one of his. well he picked a photo i had taken just for the texture, it's a close up of tree bark. i really like the photo for the sun is hitting it just perfect. here's the photo.

not the best picture of it, but i think you get the idea. so the next day after he picked this photo, i brought it in all framed and matted and i think i surprised him. again he said he liked it and again i hope he was telling the truth. i don't think he would say he liked it if he didn't. well for the picture he was going to give to me, he gave me a stack of photo's he took and let me pick from them. well there were two that i really liked and he said that i could have them both. which i thought was really nice of him. here are the pictures i got from him.

  i'm totally in love with this picture and just keep loving it whenever i look at it is this one:

i just love(!) this photo. there's just something about it i can't get over. i love how you can only tell it's a carousel by the lights. i love the picture so much that it has inspired me to write a poem. when i have the finished poem i will share it on here. i just love this photo! i'm so thankful that he let me have it.  

poetry/art swap

so the other day a friend of mine at work asked to see some of my poetry and i baulked at him and told him i would show him if he brought in some of his art work (he went to the art institute in chicago for college). so yesterday he finally had his art and i had my poetry and we swapped. well we didn't keep each others work but we got to see it. he showed me a photo and an abstract painting. i really liked the abstract painting. it was really cool. it was in black and white and reminded me of water rippeling. i showed him this poem and another poem i had written. he said he liked them and hopefully he was telling the truth.

what gets me is that i was really embarressed to show him my poetry. i don't know why for i send my poetry out to get published all the time, why would i be embarressed to show a friend? well i think i know the answer. i think i was embarressed for i know him and see him everyday. where i don't know the poetry editors for the magazines. i don't ever have to face those people every day. and if i do face them, its because i'm getting published. and then i'm very ok with facing them. so thats why i baulked when he asked to see my work at first. and thats why i made a deal with him to show me his art. at least then i'm not the only one risking something i've made. so yeah, i just couldn't believe how embarressed i got over it. but in the end i still did it and i got to see him awesome art out of it.

extra

so this isn't a post about my writing. but a picture i took at the chicago comic-con was posted on another blog. greek orthodox is a blog i've been following and the guy posts funny pictures of people in their costumes. alot of the time he will post storm tropper costumes that have been ultered. like a disco storm trooper. so this is the picture i sent him. i thought it was cool that he posted it on his blog. the blog is really cool. it has everything nerdy, escpically star wars stuff. so go there and check it out!

memories

so this past weekend jeremy and i went letterboxing and walked around a beautiful forest perserve in romeoville, il. we found a bunch of different stamps and had a grand old time. jeremy stalked some animals so he could get some pictures. he got some good one's of a woodpecker and of a hawk. while we were at the park there was a swing set and since we are both kids at heart, we totally went and played on it. of course i was there with my point-and-shoot camera and took pictures of our day. and while looking at the pictures yesterday night it reminded me of some old (and i mean old, these were before i had any formal training) poems i had written many years ago. i remember when i wrote those poems. i was having a blah day and so i went to the park and took a notebook with me. i wrote a little bit about the what was happening around me and how i felt. so i thought i would share some new memories (the photo's from this weekend) with some old memories (the poetry from years and years ago). the first picture can explain its self. the second picture is jeremy stalking the woodpecker.


-one is never to old to play on the swings.

-a nice day brings all kinds of people outside. father and son. mother and her little ones. the swings creak as loud as the see-saws.

-when does a father decide that they are just your parent and not the one to push you on the tire swing?









-why does the woodpecker peck at a tree? is it for truth? or does it just look to make a hole in the tree's life. does the tree want truth? or does it just want a hole in its bark.

time

so my normal job has changed my hours, which is good news for i will have more time to work on my writings now. before i worked from 8:30am-5pm, now i work from 7am-3:30pm. so when i get home i can sit down and write and whatnots. so i think i will do that today when i get home from work. i haven't had a good writing day in awhile. so it will feel nice. i can work on my poetry manuscript, my letterboxing article and a bunch more. and i can work late into the night for i don't have to be at work tomorrow until 11am. plus i just got a bunch of pictures i took back from the developers so now i have some really nice photo's for some inspirational poetry. so overall i'm in for a good writing night. i'll make some hott chocolate and just sit in front of the computer and work. it will feel really nice when i'm done for the evening. a writing night always does. i always have a sense of accomplishment when i'm done for the night, for usually i get a bunch done. plus when i'm done for the night i usually have whatever thoughts that have been bothering me writen out and thought over; so they aren't just in my head anymore. so i strongly suggest everyone have a writing night, they will make you feel great in the end.

nature

well this is me with my awesome new camera. i've taken about 4 rolls of film with it already, and i'm itching to do more. last weekend i was in wisconsin and i took a really cool one of a tiger, a kangaroo, and a tree with lake michigan as the background. well the tree one, jeremy kept a copy so that he can use it as a starting point in a painting he is going to do. which i think it just amazing! i feel touched that he liked my photo so much for he's an amature professional photographer. and it's really one of my favorites i've taken so far. it's really inspired me to write about nature in some poetry. eventually i'll put some of the photo's that have inspired me to write on here. because i use a film camera it's more work for me to put photo's on the computer. not hard work, but more work then i'm always willing to do. so when i have a bunch i will show them to you guys.

photography into poetry

so i've recently bought a new camera and i've very excited about it! it's a film version of the rebel ti slr. i've always loved taking photo's with my kodak point-and-shoot but i've also always loved the fancy photo's that artists take with their slr's. so jeremy has been letting me barrow his family's old slr camera so i can take some nice black and white photo's with it (i just love[!] black and white photo's!). And jeremy is an amature professional photographer so it helps a bunch when i have any questions. this is me using the old camera.

so you're asking why am i posting this here. well i'm posting this here because i'm excited about the inspiration the photo's will give me for my poetry. in one of my poetry books it says to look at photo's to try and get inspired. so i already have some photo's i can look at. but now i can take photo's whenever i want, without having to wait until i see jeremy again so i can use his slr, and take all the photo's i want. whatever strikes my fancy that i might get inspired later about i will just snap it and take it home with me. later on when i'm looking at my photo's i might get inspired by a photo i took and write a poem about it. so besides just being excited that i can take more photo's on my own with a fun new camera, i'm also excited about the poetry implications there are!

cantigny park

here i am at cantigny. jeremy took it while i was lining up a shot of my own. you can kinda see the flowers in the background. that place is so beautiful! i will definatly be having some flower poems coming up. the colors and the arragements of the flowers are just so inspiring! the shot on the right is another photo jeremy took. i'm sitting in front of a rose garden. jeremy said he decided to name the compostion mollie rose. and not just because i'm sitting in front of roses. this picture is a better representitive of what the flowers look at cantigny. it's just such a beautiful place it's unbelieveable! i can't wait until i get my pictures back. i will have to scan them into the computer but, that's ok. i will scan them in and then have the corisponding poem with it so you can see how i was inspired.

action baby!

yesterday was amazing for my brain for two reasons!

the first one was jeremy and i went to cantigy park and took awesome artsy photo's. i can't wait to get my photo's for there's a couple that made a poem line stick out in my head. so i'm really excited to get the photo's back so i can finish the thoughts that are in my head. and the reason i have to wait to get the photo's is because i used a film camera, just incase your wondering.

the second reason yesterday was awesome for my brain is because i got to sit in on a nothing special productions (nsp) practice for their next show. which i have to say is giong to be amazing! if anyone live's in the chicago area, i strongly suggest going. but watching them perform and just run read through's and then interacting with each other really helped my idea i have. and watching mikey as the director made my mind explode! i loved it. his actions and everything really insipired an image for my director.

so all in all yesterday was a very good brain storming day!