blue

I got a roll of pictures back today and every one of them was blue. Not just a little bit blue, but it was as if I had a blue filter on my camera. They were indoor shots with the flash and I wonder whether I had something on my settings off. I use a manual camera, which I generally love, but every once in a while, it comes back to bite me.

About ten years ago, my friend Emily was moving to Seattle from northern California. She had a disposable camera to use on the trip and I insisted that we use my manual camera, since it took much better photos. Well, my wonderful camera did not advance the film properly, so we had a whole roll of black. It was awful. We had taken wonderful pictures of a mementous trip and have nothing to show for it. I have never argued with a disposable camera again.

And so I have my second roll of ruined pictures. Fortunately they were pictures that I can easily retake, once I figure out what was going on with the camera. And at least it only happens every ten years. I can live with that.

Just a picture

april, I get it

I used to bug my friend April all the time (she would agree) to write in her blog. Now I only bug her about it occasionally. In the future, I shall not bug her at all, I don't think. She's also working and in school (law school at that) and is a TA for a class. Sorry for all the grief, April. I developed empathy. Lucky you, eh?

I have been running around a lot this week and have had barely a moment to breathe. Work, school work, internship, work, work, work.

The picture was taken at Pacifica in the South African garden on campus. It was a lovely sunny day in Carpinteria. I look forward to my next trip, which will be the first weekend in December. We will be on the other campus, which will be odd. I will be a good sport about it, however, since they have been very good about keeping us on the main campus as much as possible. Then, I will have final papers to write (due December 26) and perhaps a week off from schoolwork between Christmas and New Year's Day.

the scrabble bug

For the last couple of years, I have been playing Scrabble online thanks to my Grandma. She introduced me to the site and I've been playing ever since. It is a great little site, created by a man in the midwest. He wanted to have a way to help stay connected to his father and to help him pass the time while he was terminally ill a number of years ago. So, he developed the site. After his father died, he decided to enhance it and open it up to the public so everyone would be able to enjoy it. He thought it would help others stay connected with family and friends who lived apart. He was right.

In short, after you set up the game, you can play a turn and write a message to your partner. That person then receives an email that says that it is his or her turn. Your partner goes to the Web site and does the same. It is passed back and forth until the game is complete. It has a bit of a "cheat" built in &mdash there is a dictionary that will let you know when you place a word that doesn't exist. You can find the Scrabble Bug Cafe here.

rerun

I was back at the Jung Society Library today. Apparently I am the only volunteer who is dependable and always shows up, so they have been asking me to come a lot lately. I enjoy being there and always get some reading or writing done, so it is a pleasure. Today there was a workshop down the hall and so I had a lot of foot traffic. I always feel like such a voyeur when checking out books to people. I try to avert my eyes from the titles. I feel like I'm picking through their personal belongings. I love that the public library has a self checkout so I don't have to hand over my books to a stranger to look through. Yes, I do consider myself a private person, in case you were wondering.