One semester in college my entire photography class had to prepare individual slideshows with backing music, to be presented to the open public.

The process was actually pretty grueling, too. We had to first create a storyboard of our idea, shoot it, develop the negs and then print them onto litho film to create the positive, then cut out each slide and glue it into a slide case. It was a great learning experience but man, I never want to do that again!

My slideshow was called The Tourist and revolved around a darker Alice in Wonderland sort of tale. Basically, girl reads a book, falls asleep, finds herself awake in a weird new world and has to find her book to get transported home, only to be left wondering if it really happened or not.

The soundtrack to this is “Kefka’s Theme” from the Final Fantasy VI Piano Collections, one of my favorite albums ever. The music playing at the credits is “Kids Run Through The City Corner,” also from the VI Collection.

Anyway, I started making a digital version of my slideshow in Windows Movie Maker last summer and never quite finished it. Mostly I’m missing a couple frames (hence the repeat shots), and I went a little overboard with the camera shake effects, but overall I’m pleased with where I left off.

Despite all that, I thought I’d post it for s&g’s. Hope you enjoy it, too! And Happy Sunday. :)

Ever since I got Chris into blogging, he’s been digging through his old recordings and finding some pretty long and forgotten stuff, including a goof-off ode to Felix that I’d written as a joke and sometimes played for friends who came over to our apartment.

Take that song, add a lazy Sunday and Windows Movie Maker, and this is what you get: a totally ridiculous slideshow of my sweet Felix, with horrible backing music provided by yours truly!*

Enjoy!

* Unlike some bloggers out there, I wasn’t blessed with a gorgeous voice. I’m actually really awful, borderlining on tone deaf. Consider this your warning! :P

Earlier this week two of my best buds from Arcata drove over to Redding for the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. A lot of sitting around, twiddling our thumbs and waiting to go stand in line and wait some more happened. But since neither of them had ever really been here, Chris and I made sure to treat them to all the joys of this big-little city, however few they may be.

We started off with a lunch buffet at Priya, an amazing local Indian restaurant.

Followed by a trip to Collector’s Choice, where Allyson let her inner fangirl roam free.

And then Dairy Queen, which I hadn’t had since we were in Thailand (and, as noted in the video, the sizes were way smaller!).

Having them in town made me realize how much I take things like Dairy Queen for granted. Arcata has a cap on the number of corporations allowed within city limits, so a lot of things– like In ‘n’ Out– are nowhere to be found.

The next morning we went out to breakfast at Black Bear Diner, but not before this happened. It was a total accident, I swear!

Allyson fell in love with Black Bear’s mug. I’m not going to say she took it with her as a momento of this trip… Or did she?

Oh yeah, Chris was part of this whole adventure, but as per usual, he rarely allowed himself to be photographed.

He also gave up his ticket to the midnight showing so that Dorian could go– how sweet is that?! The next day I went to an evening showing with Chris, which means I technically saw HBP twice on opening day. Taking geekery to new heights!

I hope everyone who wants to see the new Harry Potter film has already gotten a chance to do so. I really believe it’s one of the most well-done so far, though it helps that I couldn’t even remember who the Half-Blood Prince is while watching it!

Everyone looked and played their parts superbly, and there was none of that awful CGI that we’ll look back on in 2 years and cringe (Grawp, anyone?). And since when is Draco Malfoy actually attractive?! I suspect it’s the turtlenecks.

Earlier this week Allyson let me take her D90 on a test drive. I pretty much fell in love with the video capabilities, but I’m still partial to my D50 when it comes to actually shooting photos. That might change once I get back to Redding and edit the photos I shot on her camera with my lenses.

If there were ever any doubt as to what a huge dork I am (or the dorks I like to keep as company), let these videos be the living proof! I mean, really? Krumping foxgloves? What was I thinking?

Enjoy, and have a nice weekend, y’all!

Chris’s mom has a very nice piano, which I love to jam on whenever we’re in town for the holidays. Given our extended vacation in Redding this summer I decided to hunker down and learn some real tunes.

Before it was all Christmas songs and Greensleeves… Which is fun, but not much of a challenge. Lately I’ve been working, page by page, to learn this song. It’s one of my favorite video game tunes from Final Fantasy IX. I know I’m playing the end horribly wrong, but I’ve never taken lessons and am really not much of a musician. I hope you enjoy it, anyway!

Happy Sunday :)