Yes yes, I’ve been MIA for a little while. *shrug* Real life and all.

So… update. Hmmmmmmmmm. Well.. I was in LA for a few days for a family emergency, my car broke down on the way back and cost $1000 to fix, the Xoie is being a booger face but I love her anyway, I’ve been playing lots of Rock Band and some D&D, I found myself a cute boy who, thus far, has proven himself to be a genuinely nice guy, I got an iPod touch that is currently glued to my hands, and… you know, stuff.

I refuse to apoligze for not blogging more often, and I never understood people who made posts about thinking about closing their blogs. In case anybody hasn’t noticed… if I don’t feel like blogging, I just don’t blog. But, I am still alive. Just in case anybody was wondering.

Oh yeah, and today, one of my pictures made it into Explore on Flickr. This is only my 3rd one to ever be in there. Behold!

I Think We Killed Her - (aka I Think I Might Be A Cylon, aka 073)

I have seen the light and I am never going back.

Let’s briefly talk about what they both are. I’m sure you have an idea but I’m gonna throw it out there anyway. The RAW format is not really standardized, but in a nutshell, it’s minimally processed data from an image sensor, such as the one in a camera. It’s something like a digital photo negative… it contains the information needed to make an image. Then there’s a JPEG, which is more like the final printed picture. It’s an image that you can look at. A final product, persay.

Many cameras (well, maybe not the point-and-shoots so much, but most of the digital SLRs) give you the option to shoot in JPEG, RAW, or both in some cases. I admit, I shot in JPEG for a long time. But for people that edit their photos (much like how film photographers used different methods when developing their film for different effects), RAW is the way to go. Allow me to show you some visual examples.

Here’s a flower photo I took today.

It’s a decent picture, but a little boring and the colors don’t look nearly as vibrant or natural as they actually are. So, I spruced up the RAW file a bit.

Now that’s better. Yay better! But, just for curiosity’s sake.. let’s see what happens if I apply the same exact changes to a JPEG version of the original image that I applied to the RAW version of it.

Yes. Not so good, right? That’s because RAW files store more information than a JPEG. The RAW file doesn’t have a set white balance, and it hasn’t had saturation or contrast levels forced on it, or anything like that, so it can be changed in ways that a JPEG can’t, because the JPEG only kept the information that was visible at the time, instead of the information that could have been used to make adjustments. RAW is also 16 bit data as opposed to 8 bit, so it has 65,536 levels to work with instead of just 256 like the JPEG. It’s a little hard to explain what the difference is between the information.. but basically, there are not nearly as many things set in stone in a RAW file, so you have more control over the editing.

Another good example is in how you can edit the exposure. Today when I was out shooting, I had forgotten to adjust the manual settings on my camera when I went outside after shooting inside. This, of course, led to a painfully over exposed picture. Had I only been shooting in JPEG, the image would have been ruined forever, because you just can’t turn a white blur into something that makes sense. The RAW image however, stored more information about what the image looked like before it crossed the line to overexposed. So I was able to pop the image into Lightroom and turn the exposure down to rescue it. Allow me to show you what happened when I took the overexposed image and edited the RAW, and the JPEG versions of it.

So as you can see, there are many benefits to shooting in RAW. The only downside is that they take longer to write, and they are large files. They also require special software to read them. Lightroom is a great program for it. If you don’t do any post-processing on your photos, then it won’t be worth it to shoot in RAW. But if you do… try it out. I think you’ll like the amount of control you get with a RAW file over the JPEG.

So, I got this really nifty Diana+ for Christmas from Tom. I finally got my first roll of film I shot with it back! Boy, it’s an interesting learning curve haha. Only 4 of 12 shots came out presentable. And then I realized I forgot to ask them to scan the negatives, so when I tried to scan the prints, they don’t look nearly as good as the prints. The real ones are so much softer and more dreamy looking. Damn you scanner.

Anyway without further adu, I present the 4 presentable shots.

Hopefully I have better luck with the second roll. Learning curve. Except I’m not using the same type of film LOL so it’s a whole new ballgame.

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Ed note: Yes, I know, I am doing WW on KSF To-Go too. What’s the difference? KSF To-Go is purely camera phone goodness, the ones here will be from my real camera.

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La la la. T’was a good weekend. Friday night spent too much money and made a tutu but I believe I already mentioned that.

Saturday I went and got my hair cut and then came home and Jeff helped me dye it. Then I took too long doing my makeup and didn’t have time to do my nails before Jason came to pick me up.

Then we went to Citywalk.. there was me, my mom, her boyfriend, our friend from Australia (Marianne), a friend from Colorado (Steph), a guy from Woodland Hills (Skitz/Scott), and Jason. We’re a group of old Everquest players hehe. We get together once a year. Anyway we went to Citywalk like I said and had dinner at Saddleback Ranch. Our drinks were HUGE, holy crap. My mai tai was yummy. So we ordered way more food than any of us could possibly eat and passed drinks around and had a really good time We laughed at Skitz for being a retard (dur dur duur!) and deciding Citywalk was a good place to go the weekend before halloween, because you know, Universal Studios had a HUGE thing going on and there was no parking. Anyway after dinner we rode the mechanical bull! I fell off. Then the guy made me do it again. Today my thighs hurt. I’m a wuss. After that me and Skitz made total retards of ourselves playing DDR because we were too drunk to see the arrows. It was fun. And we got carded by the curfew police. “Are you 18?” “I AM 21 YEARS OLD THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!1” Sheesh.

Today I had to go to a memorial. It was a very lovely service. It was for my aunt boyfriend who just passed away. I hardly knew him, but he had to have been a good guy if my aunt loved him I know he was very generous and caring. They threw my 19th birthday party and he did way more than I would have ever expected anybody I had never met before that day to do. Rest in Peace Rick ♥

First, I’d like to start this entry by welcoming Battlerocker to my sidebar. Battlerocker is a “2nd rate” law student and doesn’t like small talk at Fantastic Sam’s. I don’t either. That’s why I always get my hair cut by the same lady at a little local salon who doesn’t speak english all that well. I take her a picture of how I want my hair cut and $15 later it’s done. Anyway, this part isn’t about me. Battlerocker also promised to clean up, and is completely dyslexic when it comes to captchas. Go visit!

Following up on the 25 peeps photo (it was online for about 20 hours and generated 73 clicks [most of whom did not leave comments, boo! {but thanks to those that did }]).. here’s the full sized photo.

It’s me in a parking garage through an orange traffic cone! Jeff is weird like that, credit him for the picture. Aren’t I adorable? That was a good hair day, and I REALLY miss my eyebrow piercing in a sad pathetic way. Also, the white car near the top of the photo is the infamous Betty. Stupid car.

In other news, I worked crazy overtime today and didn’t even realize it was my turn to stay late until 5 minutes before I was ready to go home. It sucked. Now poor Jeff has to do all the cleaning, and as happy as I am to not have to do it, I really do feel bad that yet again he has to do my part. Sorry

I also forgot what I got out of bed to come online to do (.. no posting this entry was NOT it, but I figure since I was up I might as well do something productive).

Good night!

Oh oh oh!
In other news, Jules has made a webring for people that love vokda. Personally, I think the stuff is disgusting and that drinking rubbing alchohol would probably be the same thing, but I said I’d advertise for her, so here I am, advertising her webring. If you like vokda like she does, then check out… Vodka!. I told her I’d be interested when she makes one for rum

If this was a real emergancy, you probably wouldn’t be seeing this post.

Don’t mind me, I’m testing the email feature. Because one day, my direct internet access to posting may be blocked. And I like to be prepared. Also, what if I’m out on the town and something you guys simply must know about happens?! I know none of you read the moblog, so it’d have to post here

This is from my birthday.. 2 1 years ago. MAN I’m getting old fast Anyway, me and Sonia and JC don’t look anything like the Spice Girls in reality but we make pretty convincing shadows, no?

edit: Sonia pointed out that it was 1 year ago. I feel much better now.

*kicks category tag*

Here’s some pictures of my vacation from last week! I spent 3 days in Boston and 2 in New York. It was a lot of fun, I’d never been to the east coast before. I was also in Rhode Island and Connecticut long enough to be able to say that I’ve been there

I look almost as bad as I feel. But not quite.

It’s almost time to get the bangs trimmed, no?

Uhm. Here. One where I don’t look quite so deathly. It’s a pride thing.

Not quite in a writing mood at this exact half hour. I’m gonna eat a burrito and maybe feel like a human after I do.

Vinz is a silly little puppy.

Right now he is wandering back and forth between the living room and the bedroom because he wants to be with me but the living room is colder. Earlier he pee’d on the carpet NOT COOL VINZ.

He’s sick right now I think. He’s been wheezing and coughing and just generally breathing weird. He’s also very lethargic today…he’s been napping more than I have, and he slept all night! It may be time to take him to the vet.

He’s also a spaz. First he loves me, then he bites me, then he snuggles with me, then I can’t find him.

He wouldn’t eat lunch today. I suspect it’s cause he was full from eating my soup and my eggroll when I wasn’t looking.