Michelle.

Yup, Michelle wanted me to shoot some portrait pics for her. I was very willing!!! Here are my favorite ones. Feel free to critique, comment, and mention anything you want about these pictures.

There you have it. Tell me what you think.

thesinger

A Strong Showing, But No Special Prizes.

I have been getting some questions on my blog, and off my blog, on how my pictures did at the fair. I would like to report that they stole the show, but I can’t, because, they didn’t. (Surprise!!) Yeah, I will now actually report that the had a strong showing, but did not go on to win any Champions or Reserve Champions. The Silo Sunset and the Campfire received a blue, and the Flower and “Sunset on the Railway” got Purple ribbons. YEAAA!!! I did have an informed judge who knew what he was doing and could analyze my photos very well. It is always comforting to have a good judge. 🙂

My Ceramics also had a strong showing, with a blue and purple, but did not go on to the finals. I am ok with that. My Club, however, did very well in the Ceramics department, with four out of the six finalists coming from our club. The Royal Clovers ROCK!!!!!

My Meat Goat, Levi, also competed with enthusiasm. He received 5th place in his class of 17 goats. I consider this to be a good achievement. It’s not good enough to compete in the finals, but, such is life. 🙂

This is my last year in 4-H, because of an increasingly heavy schedule with the Youth Group, Church, etc., etc. One might wonder if I am okay with this strong, but not excellent showing in my last year. In pondering this question, I have arrived at the place where I am okay with my strong, but not excellent showing. Why am I okay with that? It’s because I did the very best that I could. No More, No Less. Such Is Life.

I have very little more to say right now. Only that I have been at an Abraham F. Nisly Reunion all day today, and will be there for most of tomorrow, except for the evening. It has proved to be an exceptional reunion so far.

thesinger

Quotes.

Instinct is the nose of the mind.
– Delphine de Girardin

Morality is the best of all devices for leading mankind by the nose.
– Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, 1844 – 1900

Always hold your head up, but be careful to keep your nose at a friendly level.
– Max L. Forman

Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all.
– Sam Ewing

It takes little talent to see what lies under one’s nose, a good deal to know in what direction to point that organ.
– Wystan Hugh Auden, 1907 – 1973

So, I thought those were sortof clever. What do you think?

Before. And After.

My good friend Josh came to my house, one fine evening, to get chopped. Yeah, Loyal was going to hack him off. Before this happened, however, Josh decided to take on a “new” and more “stylish” version of his original haircut.

Yeah, we all know that this is a little scary, but try to survive until the next picture. It IS actually more stylish, and IS newer.

So, there you have it. Josh. He is here beside me, saying that I write terribly slow. This may or may not be the case. I do not know.

thesinger

My Constipated/Tired Brain

Yeah, I was just noticing how constipated my brain has become. I have not worked my brain very hard since school has let out. I think less and less of important issues in my life, mostly since the vast majority of my awake time is spent at Miller Seed Farms doing physical labor. Do I like the break from thinking and learning? Is it good for me? Is it right for my energies to be focused towards my work? I do realize that most of my life will be spent pursuing a living of some kind. How will I train myself to think even while I am focused on a different goal, the goal of survival. I don’t know this.

At the end of a hard day of work, my tired body/brain does not feel like taking time to think about hard-to-grasp ideas, personal “hot topics”, or church issues. Is this normal? Should it be this way? Is there a better way?

I have come to appreciate school because it’s an excellent way to force myself to think. But I only have one year of school left before I finish high school. I won’t be able to have school as my crutch forever and ever.

In conclusion, I will have to teach myself to think, even when most of my physical efforts will be devoted to surviving on this complicated earth. Could anyone out there who is older and wiser shed some light on this topic? I would appreciate any and all thoughts that you might have.

thesinger

My crazy youth group.

ya, I have a good youth group. They listen to me when I have announcements, the respect me as a leader, and they are free with their ideas as well. (This is a good thing.) So, as a tribute to my youth group, here is a collage of pictures that I shot sometime in the last year of my fellow youth groupers. Enjoy!

thesinger

I’m going to the 4-H Fair with my Pictures!!!

And, here, for your entertainment and listening enjoyment, are my selections from the last year of shooting.

SO, there you have it. The Cream of My Crop, so to speak.

These will be conferenced judged, which means that I will sit down with the judge and he/she will talk to me and ask me questions about my pictures. During this process, the judge will decide what ribbon to give my photos. The good thing is that all photos that the 4-Her’s take to the fair will be judged on their own merit. It will NOT be the kind of thing where the top three in a class get all the glory and the rest get none. There are four ribbons possible; a white, a red, a blue, and a purple ribbon. (White is the lowest ribbon, and Purple is the highest ribbon.)

The 4-Her’s are divided into four classes, based on the individual’s skill level. The judges will pick two of the best pictures from each class, and those two will be the Champion and the Reserve Champion in that class. From the top eight photos, the judges will pick out a Grand Champion, and a Reserve Grand Champion. These will be the best two pictures at the fair, providing the judges did a good job of judging.

As you can see, I am getting stoked about the Reno County 4-H Fair. It should be a great time of learning and enjoyment!!!

thesinger

Joke of the day.

Start at the Very Beginning

When the new patient was settled comfortably on the couch,
the psychiatrist began his therapy session.

“I’m not aware of your problem,” the doctor said. “So
perhaps, you should start at the very beginning.”

“Of course,” replied the patient. “In the beginning, I
created the heavens and the earth…”

Received from GCFL.net

YESSSSSSSSS!!!! I like it!!!!

Word of the Day for Tuesday, July 17, 2007

gallimaufry \gal-uh-MAW-free\, noun:

A medley; a hodgepodge.

Today bilingual programs are conducted in a gallimaufry of around 80 tongues, ranging from Spanish to Lithuanian to Micronesian Yapese.
— Ezra Bowen, “For Learning or Ethnic Pride?”, Time, July 8, 1985

Then the speech itself, and you have to feel sorry for TQMEM [The Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty] having to read out this frightful drivel, this grim gallimaufry of cliches, jargon and outright lies.
— Simon Hoggart, “Grand tradition: Maltravers, Rouge, Garter, Skinner”, The Guardian, November 27, 2003

Maran reports the daily jostlings and thrivings in a public school with 3,200 students, 185 teachers, 45 languages, a principal and five vice principals, five safety monitors, 62 sports teams and a gallimaufry of alternative programs, clubs and cliques.
— Colman McCarthy, “A Writer Goes Back to School”, Washington Post, August 20, 2001

Gallimaufry, originally meaning “a hash of various kinds of meats,” comes from French galimafrée, from Old French, from galer, “to rejoice, to make merry” (source of English gala) + mafrer, “to eat much,” from Medieval Dutch maffelen, “to open one’s mouth wide.”

From Dictionary.com

Sunday.

That is the name of the day that I am writing this on. Why am I writing on this date, and not on any other date? Because I am a busy man who has little time to do random and fun things. I have many things that I save for Sunday afternoons. For example, I could fill up my delicious Sunday afternoon with several activities:
1. I could be singing and working over some Anonymous Somebodies music. This is a very enjoyable activity. The main problems are that I need to be in the right mood, and have set apart a fairly sizable block of time to really absorb what the music is saying.
2. I could be messing around with pictures already on my computer, or creating new ones. This is also a great way to spend leisurely Sunday afternoons.
3. I could be reading. I have several books that Lyle Stutzman loaned to me on music theory and conducting that would be very enjoyable and profitable to read.
4. I could be working and thinking about Youth Group committee kinds of things. This would NOT be a very restful thing or very enjoyable. Therefore, I will attempt to resist even the urge of thinking about it.
5. I could be lying on my bed, listening to some choral, classical, or otherwise nice music. I recently set up two additional speakers in conjunction with the stereo that I have now. They are positioned so that when I lay in my bed, all four speakers are pointed directly at me. One is at the foot of my bed, the second is located at the side of my bed, and the other two are at the other side of the room, pointed in my general direction. So, what I have is a lot a potential for a great swell of sound. I like this. I like this a LOT!!
6. I could be posting some random and generally useless information on my blog. I am doing that now, even as I type. Why am I doing that now? Because Sunday is a day when I am not obligated to go to work. Therefore, I can goof around and do lighter kinds of activities, like posting.

So, this is a rundown of what I can fill up my Sunday afternoons with. There is more that could be mentioned, but I’m feeling the urge to do something else.

Peace out,

thesinger