365: Week 2

Here it is! The often imitated, never duplicated....

365: Week 2!

Day 8

January 8: There's no ice cream cone in the world that won't be just a little better if you jam an Andes mint into it.

Day 9

January 9: I know what you're thinking. In his left hand is the iPod, in his right hand is, obviously, the camera. How is he steering the car?

That's why knees were invented.

Day 10

January 10: A family portrait, courtesy of the Wii Fit Plus. From left to right: Emma, Matt, Sharon, Jordan and Me. Chris. Duh.

Day 11

January 11: In Utah, in the winter, we often end up with a temperature inversion. This means that the temperatures up at the ski resorts are actually higher than they are down here in the valley. It makes for some extremely poor air quality -- so bad that the kids have to stay in from recess. This past week, Salt Lake has had the worst air in the country.

There is one good side effect though: the hazy, smoggy fog leaves these ice crystals all over everything. If I had to choose between beauty and breathing, I'll choose breathing, but when I don't have a choice...

Day 12

January 12: This is my sister-in-law, Pam. Many of you already know her from her blog No Ordinary Life. She and her family are currently living in Germany, but Pam is in town this week for a family wedding. She had nothing to do, and I'm unemployed, so Tuesday we shot some pictures.

Day 13

January 13: Three thousand dollars worth of ivory. Jordan got her braces off today. And immediately began to ingest all the things that have been prohibited for the last year and a half.

Day 14

January 14: I'm actually shooting the family wedding today, and was planning to use one of those photos as my daily picture. Then I realized that I wouldn't get it up until late tonight, and that just won't do!

This is part self portrait, part shameless plug. This is the sign on the rear window of my car.  My new "business venture." I am Five Olives Photography! (And it was too cold to get out of my car.)



Hosted by Chris



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It's almost here!

Okay kids, here it comes!

Starting tomorrow, on this very blog, coming together for the first time ever, the greatest collection of "365" photo bloggers the universe has ever seen!

I have no idea if any of that is true, but I often find hyperbole a good substitute for fact.

I've decided to host this little weekly clambake for purely selfish reasons --  I love to see what catches your eye during the course of your day. I think of this as one of those big mosaic pictures -- hundreds (thousands) of photos combining to make one large image. A little piece of life from one corner, a little dab from another. And I'm hoping that having a place each week to share your pictures will help to motivate you somewhere around April when you're cursing yourself (and likely me) for talking you into it.

If you'd like a little advice on what to expect from the next year, click here.

Now for the rules of the game:

I'll have the link up each Thursday, and I'll keep it open for a week. Feel free to post anytime. Come by, grab the button, imbed it in your post, and then sign on to the link list.  Other than that, there are no rules.

I find it easiest to post seven days worth of pictures at a time. Also, this is not simply for people who started taking daily pictures on January 1.

Start anytime you'd like to -- in fact, I look at 365 as less a project that starts on January 1 and ends on December 31, and more as an effort to shoot daily pictures of your lives.

Thanks to Cecily -- she of the chaos and bliss -- for creating the button for me. You're not just a good friend, you're also a great button maker! I feel you're going places.

I'm looking forward to seeing you on Thursdays!

Glee

Why?

Why do I care if they make it to Regionals?

Why do I care if Puck is the father or if Finn gets back together with Quinn?

Why do I want Emma and Will to get together, but I still feel bad for Terri?

Why do I get chills every time Rachel sings?

Why do I find the relationship between Kurt and his father awkwardly touching?

Why do I think Brittany is hilarious? (a ballad is a male duck)

Why do I laugh at the TERRIBLE things that Sue says -- and why do I think she's the funniest thing on TV since Dr. Cox on Scrubs?

Why did I watch thirteen hours of Glee this past weekend, because I couldn't tear myself away from the screen?

Why am I blasting the Glee soundtrack in my car stereo, my iPod, and anywhere else I can play music?

How come every time these kids step up to the microphone they take songs that I've loved all my life, turn them on their head, and make me believe that that's the way the song should have been all along?

I really don't have an answer.

Best Friends

This is my best friend, Aaron. He kind of looks like Andre Agassi, kind of like Telly Savalas, kind of like a muppet...

I've known him for longer than I can remember.

Aaron is closer to me than a brother, closer than blood -- our mothers tell us we share a brain.

He is the Tom Sawyer to my Huck Finn.

The Han Solo to my Luke Skywalker.

The Adams to my Jefferson.

The Butch to my Sundance.

Aaron and I have seen a lot of life side by side. He's one of the few people on earth that I trust implicitly, without reservation.

My life would not be what it is without Aaron -- he's the reason we had fun, I'm the reason we survived. People claim to have best friends -- most of them don't scratch the surface. I know what he thinks, he knows what I'll do. The storms of life have battered away at both of us, but the great constant has been an understood, unapologetic, unending friendship.

We have built and ridden and mourned and laughed.

We have talked and yelled and fought and explored.

As children we watched each of our families disintegrate, as adults we are both trying to do a better job with our own families.

With the exception of my wife and children, no relationship in my life is more important than my friendship with Aaron -- in my life he's been the music to my lyrics, and my life is infinitely richer because I know him.

In fact, the greatest compliment that I can give him is that right now, I'm at a rare loss for words. I can't fully express what this friendship means to me. It's life. It's blood. It's the whole world. It's beyond my capacity to express.

And with that in mind, I'm going to share with all of you something Aaron gave me this morning:

He likes my blog so much that it makes him vomit rainbows!

He meant this as a joke, and he's afraid that you, my loyal readers, are going to roast him alive -- I told him you're all far too nice to do anything like that.

So tell me about your best friends.

I told you I'd post it Aaron.

I love you, man!

In the words of Kelly Clarkson (or maybe the kids from Glee): My life would suck without you!

Fearless

I like Taylor Swift.

I feel no shame in this.

In fact, I adore her (who doesn't?), and I'll tell you why (because I know you're dying to know):

First, she's a writer, and I've always believed that singers who write their own material are infinitely more interesting than those who show up and sing whatever is handed to them. Did you know that Taylor Swift walked away from her first record deal, because they wouldn't allow her to record her own songs? RCA wanted to package her up like all the other little pop-tarts out there. Which brings us to the second reason:

She's not Britney Spears. She writes her own material. She plays her own instruments. She keeps her clothes on. She seems like a genuinely nice person, and genuinely grateful for the opportunity that she's been given.

Taylor Swift is only twenty, and her life experience is that of a twenty-year old girl, but I relate to what she says. That's the sign of a great writer -- someone that can write personally, and still make it accessible and identifiable to a larger audience. Two months ago, on my last day of work -- at a job I held for ten years, and hated for nine and a half --  as I drove home, facing unemployment, wondering if I could really make the jump into the photography business and with my emotions swirling, I put in Taylor Swift's Fearless. The song the came on first was Change.

"It's a sad picture. The final blow hits you. Somebody else gets what you wanted, again. You know it's all the same, another time and place. Repeating history, and you're getting sick of it. But, I believe in whatever you do -- and I'll do anything to see it through, because these things will change. Can you feel it now? These walls that they put up to hold us back will fall down. It's a revolution, the time will come for us to finally win."

By the time I got home, I believed I could do anything.

I'm not quite there yet, but when I find myself getting overwhelmed by the whole situation, I play Taylor Swift, and it changes me. Every time.

And there are two more reasons.

There's a line from "Fifteen" that sold me on Taylor Swift:

"In your life, you'll do things greater than dating the boy on the football team."

I think that line should be burned over the doorway to the bedroom of every girl in America. And, as long Taylor Swift is writing lines like that, she can play at our house.

Five Questions

If you're like me, and my wife assures me that there aren't many of you out there that fit that description, you have a lot of stuff rattling around in your brain. Questions you want answered. Everything I learn makes me ask another question, and to tell you the truth it's not always questions like:

"Why is there so much suffering in the world?"

or

"Why am I here? Where am I going? What is the purpose of life?"

It's not that I don't think about those things, it's just that you can't just pick up a book and read the answer.

On New Year's Day, I sat down to write out a list of questions that I want to find answers to, this year. And it grew, and grew, and grew...it really got out of hand, to tell you the truth. I was overloaded and overwhelmed, and just sat there in a stupor -- which never accomplishes anything. So I came up with a plan:

Bite size pieces.

I'm going to break the, ever expanding, list down into manageable increments of five questions each. Once I've satisfactorily answered those questions, I'll move on to the next five. Here are the first five questions:

1. What does this mean?

I mean, I know the equation stands for energy equals mass times the speed of light, squared -- but, what does it mean? Why is it revolutionary?

I suspect this question may carry over...

2. People call this a spatula:

But I was raised calling this a spatula (we called the other thing a pancake turneroverer):

Which one is a spatula?

3. Why does Saturn have rings? (And on a side note, why is it more acceptable to pronounce Uranus "urine-us" than it is to call it "yer-aynus"?)

My inlaws gave us a membership to the local planetarium for Christmas, and I'm planning on exploring these and other astronomy related questions with gusto this year!

4. What does the "K" in Kmart stand for?

5. What is the name of this muppet?

I love the muppets, and I've seen this guy all my life -- he's the bass player for the Electric Mayhem, but I have no idea what his name is.

There you have it. I told you they weren't earth shattering. My mind is a sponge for useless trivia.

By the way, if you have any of the answers, I'd love to hear them -- not only am I trivial, I'm also lazy.

Twist my arm a little more...

So, I've heard from several of you that the idea of having a weekly place to share your 365 projects is an appealing one.

I can resist no longer, I'll host it -- actually, my motives are purely selfish: I've talked so many people into trying this, that I feel obligated to keep up with all of you, and it'll be easier this way :)

I also think it's easier to stay motivated if you know that you have somewhere to share your pictures.

But, I want a little input from the peanut gallery:

1. Which day of the week works for the most number of people?  I have always posted on the 7th day (no, not the Sabbath, the 7th, 14th and on and on), which will be Thursday this year, but we don't have to keep it that way.

2. Give me some ideas of what to call it -- I'm leaning towards Bob, myself.

3. Our dear friend, Cecily, has graciously offered her button making skills, but I need to supply her a picture. Which of the following pictures would you like to look at, week after week after week after week?

Give me a few days, and I'll have it all pulled together.