You promised a bologna?
Tuesday, 24 February 2009 20:57![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a_bit_of_wit_2For the first time since college started, it seems, I don't have an assignment due Thursday, nor do I really have anything to do except start researching for my paper. I don't have to pre-bowl because I need the darkroom tomorrow night, and I can actually relax this evening, which gives me the perfect opportunity to catch y'all up to speed on the goings-on in The Life of Brian.
By and large, it's been a near-endless string of class and work. Whenever I'm not at work, I'm at school, and vice versa. It's utterly rare that I have a night off like this where I have nothing mandatory to do, and in that time, not much of anything in major life happenings took place. For those who do not read April's LiveJournal, she got a promotion in the Department of Labor, she's officially a secretary, which means a nice raise--and she's making more than me again, but that's OK. It means more combined income, and more money for her. I won't have to be so much of a drain on her play expenses. That girl has been nothing but kind and loving, and most of all, supportive--both financially and emotionally as I transition back into a college mindset. My pride took a bit of hit in the early going...every penny of my earned money was flying out the door before I could even say hello and goodbye to it, leaving me broke almost as soon as my pay came into my bank account. All of it was going to mandatory expenses--student loans, a credit card bill, rent, utilities and all the other things needed to support the apartment, and now the added expense of paying off the tuition that the State didn't pay for. And finally, photo supplies. Photo paper is fucking expensive, and in the darkroom, you go through it like water. Darkroom photography is not an art in which you can simply make an edit, a strike-through, or white-out, like in a story. In the darkroom, if the image is not to your liking (or the professor's), you have to chuck the sheet (cha-ching) and do it again (cha-ching) until you (cha-ching) get it right (cha-ching). 5 weeks in, I've blown through about 75 8x10 sheets already, and I am awaiting a box of 100 sheets to be delivered. As a result, my pride, as a result of April having to step in to pay for some of my needed stuff (because after the important mandatory expenses ran me into negative dollars, leaving me needing other important crap--like my meds and photo supplies), took a bit of a hit. I can't thank her enough.
But yesterday, I was given some good financial news...because I'm now enrolled half-time at college (6 credits), my loans got put on automatic deferment--which means I can pay them at my leisure until I leave college or fall below half-time status. That by itself will save me $90 a month, which means that goes back into my pocket...and soon, to the IRS. I did my taxes, and I owe the IRS $165...but NY will give me back $50. Go figure. Still, the news about my loans being put on deferment is going to help out.
But yeah, college and work almost all the time, barely any free time. It's cutting into my sex time, leaving me even more frustrated.
You can see some of my work from Photo I up on my deviantART. Check it out, maybe buy something.
Speaking of photos, remember back in December, I had said that a local librarian wanted to display some of my pictures in a month-long exhibit in said library? Well, that exhibit is slated for all of March. Twenty of my pictures will be displayed in the library of Albany Molecular Research International, located near Albany. The short story: the librarians wanted something to spice up the walls a bit, so they have been doing month-long displays of pictures from local photographers. They came across my Mad Squirrel Photos page on PhotoReflect, and got in touch with me. We met near Christmas, and they told me what images they wanted. The one catch: I was not going to be paid for this...this was completely voluntary. I took it, entirely due to the fact that this will net me more exposure. I said it would take me a while to purchase all the frames needed for 20 pictures, so, $160 (20 frames and 20 8x10 prints) and 3 months later, I've got them ready to go. And by the end, if no one wants to buy them, I'll have 20 framed pictures for sale. You know you'll want them. Check out the 20 pics going up in the exhibit at AMRI in March.
Annie's also coming up this weekend, and that's really all that's going on. Silent Evil is over, which gives me more time to devote to my photography. Other brief things of note: looks like I'll be going to at least one of the two Dave Matthews Band concerts scheduled for June 11 and 12. Definitely going on the 12th, which is a Saturday.
I'm enjoying listening to the Final Fantasy radio station on AOL Radio.
I'm also enjoying these dark chocolate M&Ms.
So I leave you with your moment of Zen, this one provided, coincidentally, by Jon Stewart: "Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. You don't eat for a whole day, all your sin for the year is wiped clean. BEAT THAT--with your little Lent. Lent's what, forty days of absolution? Forty days to ONE day. Even in sin, you're paying retail!
By and large, it's been a near-endless string of class and work. Whenever I'm not at work, I'm at school, and vice versa. It's utterly rare that I have a night off like this where I have nothing mandatory to do, and in that time, not much of anything in major life happenings took place. For those who do not read April's LiveJournal, she got a promotion in the Department of Labor, she's officially a secretary, which means a nice raise--and she's making more than me again, but that's OK. It means more combined income, and more money for her. I won't have to be so much of a drain on her play expenses. That girl has been nothing but kind and loving, and most of all, supportive--both financially and emotionally as I transition back into a college mindset. My pride took a bit of hit in the early going...every penny of my earned money was flying out the door before I could even say hello and goodbye to it, leaving me broke almost as soon as my pay came into my bank account. All of it was going to mandatory expenses--student loans, a credit card bill, rent, utilities and all the other things needed to support the apartment, and now the added expense of paying off the tuition that the State didn't pay for. And finally, photo supplies. Photo paper is fucking expensive, and in the darkroom, you go through it like water. Darkroom photography is not an art in which you can simply make an edit, a strike-through, or white-out, like in a story. In the darkroom, if the image is not to your liking (or the professor's), you have to chuck the sheet (cha-ching) and do it again (cha-ching) until you (cha-ching) get it right (cha-ching). 5 weeks in, I've blown through about 75 8x10 sheets already, and I am awaiting a box of 100 sheets to be delivered. As a result, my pride, as a result of April having to step in to pay for some of my needed stuff (because after the important mandatory expenses ran me into negative dollars, leaving me needing other important crap--like my meds and photo supplies), took a bit of a hit. I can't thank her enough.
But yesterday, I was given some good financial news...because I'm now enrolled half-time at college (6 credits), my loans got put on automatic deferment--which means I can pay them at my leisure until I leave college or fall below half-time status. That by itself will save me $90 a month, which means that goes back into my pocket...and soon, to the IRS. I did my taxes, and I owe the IRS $165...but NY will give me back $50. Go figure. Still, the news about my loans being put on deferment is going to help out.
But yeah, college and work almost all the time, barely any free time. It's cutting into my sex time, leaving me even more frustrated.
You can see some of my work from Photo I up on my deviantART. Check it out, maybe buy something.
Speaking of photos, remember back in December, I had said that a local librarian wanted to display some of my pictures in a month-long exhibit in said library? Well, that exhibit is slated for all of March. Twenty of my pictures will be displayed in the library of Albany Molecular Research International, located near Albany. The short story: the librarians wanted something to spice up the walls a bit, so they have been doing month-long displays of pictures from local photographers. They came across my Mad Squirrel Photos page on PhotoReflect, and got in touch with me. We met near Christmas, and they told me what images they wanted. The one catch: I was not going to be paid for this...this was completely voluntary. I took it, entirely due to the fact that this will net me more exposure. I said it would take me a while to purchase all the frames needed for 20 pictures, so, $160 (20 frames and 20 8x10 prints) and 3 months later, I've got them ready to go. And by the end, if no one wants to buy them, I'll have 20 framed pictures for sale. You know you'll want them. Check out the 20 pics going up in the exhibit at AMRI in March.
Annie's also coming up this weekend, and that's really all that's going on. Silent Evil is over, which gives me more time to devote to my photography. Other brief things of note: looks like I'll be going to at least one of the two Dave Matthews Band concerts scheduled for June 11 and 12. Definitely going on the 12th, which is a Saturday.
I'm enjoying listening to the Final Fantasy radio station on AOL Radio.
I'm also enjoying these dark chocolate M&Ms.
So I leave you with your moment of Zen, this one provided, coincidentally, by Jon Stewart: "Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. You don't eat for a whole day, all your sin for the year is wiped clean. BEAT THAT--with your little Lent. Lent's what, forty days of absolution? Forty days to ONE day. Even in sin, you're paying retail!
