Happy Birthiversary!!!

age is just a number...... right?

 

It’s the 1st anniversary of my 29th birthday today 🙂

 

Spent the day relaxing, painting, enjoying the outdoors, walking the beach, & eating some delicious seafood… had a ME day. And doing a lot of thinking.

Turning 30, I feel like I should look different somehow. Like I should have a neon sign above me flashing “O L D”, or a hairy wart on my nose. Nothing has changed. I’m the same person with the same life I had yesterday. No new super powers, no quick deterioration of my brain. Nothing.

 

Everyone keeps telling me “30 is the new 20”, “Life begins at 30”, “Your thirties are the best times of your life”…. maybe they only think this because they can’t REMEMBER their twenties?? There’s a large chunk of my twenties that were spent in a drunken blackout; but although I don’t quite remember it all, I know I had a hell of a time!!

 

My thirties will really have to step it up to overcome the greatness of my twenties.

 

the water was GORGEOUS today ❤

 

 

Seeing that I live in Florida now, this still isn’t a birthday away from “home”. Sioux Falls, SD is not my home anymore. I don’t miss it or anything about it, & I finally have no want at all to ever move back. So I guess I’m “home”-less.

 

Which makes me think of another thing: why is there so many people afraid to grow up?? I haven’t been in the party mood for a while now, so I ended up losing touch with a lot of my new friends down here. Most people here, and everywhere else I’ve lived, just want to drink & party & get wasted all the time.

 

Sure, I’m sipping on a margarita at a beachside seafood restaurant overlooking the water right now; but I’m sipping it. Not chugging it & asking for shots. It’s hard to find anyone that just wants a laid back sober life. You know, one where you can actually REMEMBER the awesome things you do lol, & you hang out at places other than bars.

Yes, people actually do that. Obviously not many!

 

birthday dinner on the water

 

 

It seems people are afraid to lose their freedom & think growing up & becoming a responsible & dependable human being is going to do that. I used to be one of these people, but I’ve grown up. Just wish others would follow. It sucks not having any friends with similar interests.

 

Meh, oh well. It was still an amazing sober birthday 🙂

 

 

 

some iPhone fun for ya

I came across a blog about favorite iPhone apps & thought I’d share some of mine with everyone. First I want to give you a couple links to the blog that I had found on Freshly Pressed about this. The first one is some interesting tips for Instagram. A photography friend of mine had told me about Instagram a couple months ago & I just couldn’t get into it. I really didn’t know what I was doing, & I didn’t like the fact that every picture I took with the Instagram app automatically uploaded onto my Instagram account. There should be an option to either Upload or Save. But, after reading these tips I’m going to give Instagram another shot….

Istagram Tips and Tricks

The next link is another blog from the same girl, listing some of her favorite iPhone apps. She’s got some good ones on here and I can’t wait to download them! This should keep me busy for the next 4.5 lonely hours at work >_<

My Favorite iPhone Apps

Now, here’s some of my favorite apps that I have downloaded. I download so many different apps & not even use most of them, but some of my most used Photography apps are Camera+ and Snapseed. PhotoForge I really should utilize more often because it has more advanced editing options. I have Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 on my laptop at home, so if I ever want to do something specific I usually just do it there. But, I try to do my photography so that the shot comes out almost exactly how I want it.. I don’t like to do a lot of editing. I think there’s too much editing in Photography these days. For me, true photography is capturing the perfect shot, not editingto make the perfect shot. But to each their own….

Photography fun ❤

Sometimes I think I do way too much Social Networking; then I find people worse than me & I feel better about myself lol. One of my favorite Social Networking apps is Groupie. I found this when I had my iPhone4 a year ago & then I had switched back to Android for awhile & damn I missed Groupie!! There’s different “groups” which are essentially chat rooms about different topics. I don’t check it as often lately because I’ve been so busy, but one group I check regularly is the original “Photography Contest” group made by Administrators: Kali Rae, Shon, & redchauvin08. This is the original group… one of the first members took it upon themselves to copy this & make their own Photography Contest group with the same exact rules etc… we were pretty upset about it, but its whatever. In this group there’s a new contest theme every 3 days. You post one picture for that contest, everyone votes by “thumbs up-ing” pictures, the winner at the end gets their shot put as the group profile pic until the end of the next contest & they also get to choose the theme for the next contest. Its a neat way to get different photography ideas & compete with other photographers in a friendly manner. And its pretty cool to see your shot as the profile picture when you win =) Groupie was originally an iPhone only app, but just went to Android & PC recently.

The Facebook app for iPhone (and the same for Android) fucking sucks. Like, seriously, Facebook has been around for years now, get with it you guys & make a decent cell phone app already!! Most of the time the app doesn’t work properly, doesn’t give you notifications, doesn’t tell you when you have a new message, etc. But, there’s only ONE Facebook app out there (that I know of), so what can you do?

**If you know of a different FB app other than the official that works better, PLEASE let me know!!!!**

With the iPhone I really haven’t been able to find a decent Twitter app. I have like 3 or 4 downloaded, but I don’t love any of them. The one I’ve been using lately though is TweetCaster. Its ok. Any better suggestions? (PS – I need twit-longer… can’t live without it!)

Some of my favorite Social Networking apps are: Google+, Messenger (a Facebook messaging app), & WordPress. I have Evernote listed in my Social Networks folder because I write my blog posts in it so I have a saved copy, then I’ll copy/paste it into WordPress when I’m ready to publish it. Evernote is hands-down my favorite note application!! You create a free user account, then every note you write is saved to your account & you can view your account on any cell phone Evernote app & on your computer at Evernote.com. You can also make different “Notebooks” to organize everything, & I believe you can add picture & audio files. Its absolutely amazing ❤

Getting connected!

I have a few music apps. Honestly, the one thing I always miss about Android is the apps that allow you to download mp3’s for free. I would always have such a large & diverse music collection.. I miss that! There are some “download” apps for iPhone that let you download mp3’s… you can listen to the mp3’s on the app, but to save them permanently or add them to your iPhone music library you need to sync the songs to your iTunes account, which apparently you can do, I just haven’t messed around with that yet.

My favorite music apps are: MusicDown (to download mp3’s for free), gMusic (to get access to your GoogleMusic account, I believe it only works over internet or wifi connection, & can be glitchy, but its worth the money if you have a large music collection on GMusic), Pandora & TuneIn Radio for free mix of music, and The Edge which is an Australian radio station I ran across a couple years ago. They seem to have the new “Top 100” type of music in before we get it here in the states, and it tells you the name & artist of the song playing. What I would always do with my Android phones was listen to The Edge to hear the new music then download it all using one of my mp3 download apps (like Tunee). *sigh* I miss those days.

**Rockin' it out**

 

 

Some of my other random favorite apps are: AppsGoneFree (new apps every day that have waived the fee & are now free to download for a short period of time), surf guru (for Florida beach reports, UV index, low/high tide times, wave size, local surf events, current air & water temps, etc), WeatherBug (weather app), PDFReader Lite (to read downloaded textbook torrents & any other PDF files, obviously lol), BofA (Bank of America app, I can do everything with my account that I need to… even transfer between my accounts & to an account at a different bank), Sketch Maker (new photography app I found today, super cool!), and My Days (the BEST menstrual & ovulation calendar I’ve ever found & I’m sooooo glad its on iPhone now!! its VERY accurate!).

Randomness

What are some of your favorite iPhone apps?

Very well put. Life is constantly changing.

A Certain Slant of Light Photography

Love goes out, out like a light,
Out like a flame, and you can’t find it anymore.
Just when you think it’s lost in the rain,
It comes back knocking at your door.

God put us here on this carnival ride,
We close our eyes,
Never knowing where it will take us next.
Babies are born and at the same time,
someone’s taking their last breath.

It’s the wheel of the world turning around.
In the blink of an eye,
It can change your life,
And it never even slows down.

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explore

Today I ran across this travel site online & read a few articles. There’s so many things I want to see in the world, I hope one day I get the chance to.

Live life to the fullest; embrace each moment.

Spectacular photography.

Spectacular Bridges Around the World

My life dream: cross some of these bridges.

World’s Scariest Bridges

(sigh) I really need to stop daydreaming… Florida is losing some of its *spark* now….

Best Secret Islands on Earth

a florida morning

I work late nights. One night a couple weeks ago, when I finished working at 1am, I decided to just stay awake until sunrise & take my Nikon D3000 to the beach. Here’s some shots I captured that day; enjoy…

stroll to the beach

alone against the world

I love this, it looks like it was painted.

the ocean floor

take flight

pathway to freedom

on the hunt for breakfast

beach VS photography

I’ve lived all around this country. For one time in my life I found a place that gives me that special feeling. Home. And that state is Florida. The year-round sun, palms reaching for the sky, sand beneath my feet, the lapping of the waves …. Florida finally felt like home.

Until today.

My love for photography sat on the back burner since I arrived in June. I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t feeling that passion anymore. When I got off work at 1am last night I decided to forgo sleeping & go to the beach at sunrise to take some pictures. FINALLY, a chance to reconnect with my Nikon that had been neglected so long.

It was this trip to the beach that has changed things for me. This was the moment I realized why photography has been missing in my new Florida life. Where I live, the only things around are palm trees, ocean, & more palm trees. Blahhhhh. You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!? This area in Florida is NOT a photographer’s dream. Its the same landscape wherever you go. Nothing changes unless you go deep south into the Everglades.

Its very frustrating. I miss photography so much; its a piece of my heart & its been missing. And now I realize that as long as I’m in Florida I may never get it back. How can the ONE place I love so much be missing such a piece of my soul?? Am I supposed to just learn to live without it being a main focus in my life? Moving is always an option, yet I don’t know if I could move away from the ocean again.

Its such an amazing feeling to be a 10 minute drive from the sparkling beach. 10 minutes to the roar of the sea, crashing of the waves, seagulls scavenging for food, the warm sand in your toes, smell of salt in the air, & all the creatures of the water. The beach is like an entirely different world than the city. Different scenery, different sounds & smells, different species. You’re stepping into a world hidden away behind A1A & the bustle of tourists. Away from the hectic reality of life. A place to relax & let the sand scrub away your worries & wash them out with the tide.

How could I ever leave this?? To choose between two loves: beach & photography. So heartbreaking; I wouldn’t wish this on anyone….

Florida adventure

Florida life so far is interesting. Still no water at our house. Turns out we don’t have a water meter so it’s taking longer to get the water hooked up & turned on. Been here since Monday, it’s now Thursday, HOPEFULLY the water will be hooked up tomorrow.

Done a little job searching, have an interview tomorrow & *fingers crossed* that I get the job.

Relaxing at the beach yesterday is the only thing keeping me focused & going. It reminded me of the reason I wanted to move to Florida in the first place – the ocean ❤

Now I just need to stay focused, find a job, make that money, & get the eff out of the ghetto. Wish me luck, I need it….

one with nature

Winter is the best season for hiking. You don’t sweat yourself away, there’s no bugs attacking me, & there’s usually no one else there to interupt my moment of peace.

I feel I’m a part of nature when I hike. There’s so much beauty in the trees, in the way the sun’s rays hit the branches just right as to throw a tangle of shadows across the pathway.

Hiking alone is much more rewarding for me. There’s no one slowing me down or constantly talking. I can explore any section of the area I want without someone complaining about walking through the snow or having to dodge tree limbs. I can rest, soak in the beauty, & reflect on my thoughts. I can empty my mind of the endless worries of a mundane life.

Free myself.

Frosty trees

The last thing I want to do in a day is wake up early. Its just not my thing. But today was one of the rare days I ventured out before noon on a day off. The trees have this beautiful frost on them, so I’m on a race against time to go do some photography before the sun melts it all away. There’s nothing in life more beautiful than nature.