Hectic Still

Life is as it's been for a while now: no job, lots of packing and cleaning and tryin to get the house to show and (hopefully) sell, and not a whole lot else. Someone decided to buy my car for $2300 (less than the $2500 it would have been nice to get, but it's still better than $2000 or less. The actual transaction should occur on Friday, so I have "Sylvia" (so named because she's a 240SX and quite similar to her Silvia cousins; previously known as Christine) until then. I'm hoping to be able to find a good car I can afford as soon as we move; one that's more fuel-efficient than my 240 (I estimate I get 20-24 mpg in it), and one that doesn't cost me a fortune in repairs and replacement parts and labor.

Since I haven't been out taking interesting photos with my camera, here's an iPhone pic I got some time ago (and used an Instagram filter on)...it's as if God was reaching through the clouds to the world below...

In the darkest days of your life, when the clouds are close and grim,
Look to the heavens, to the One who can calm any storm, the One who the skies and sea obeyed and became still at his command.
There is faith that can move mountains, and the sky is always darkest before the dawn; when all seems lost, the sun may shine through the clouds in your life and melt the icy darkness in your soul.

Methinks this has much room for improvement...but as it was written on the spot, perhaps I may do better with time and practice.

In Millington

Hello friends, I'm back. Well, sort of - I might not be online much, but I can at least write this update.
On Tuesday we finished packing up the moving truck, and we got on the road at around 6 am on Wednesday morning. Driving in the morning was very difficult, since I was struggling to stay awake, but driving "Great White" was obviously much easier than driving the huge truck; I'd definitely had crashed if I was driving it instead of my dad. He said the 12-passenger van felt like a sports car after getting used to the truck. :)

Anyway, we finally arrived here in Millington (close to Memphis, TN) on Wednesday night and yesterday we unloaded the truck into storage and looked at a house. We're still deciding on which house to rent, so we will probably be looking at some more today. When we move in early July, we'll be bringing the rest of our stuff and moving into the house.

I wish we were close to Nashville instead of Memphis, partly due to the bad reputation Memphis has, as well as some other stuff, but I guess it's ok...all I can say is Millington is a really small town (really slow as well) that's kind of like a more modern version of Radiator Springs (the town in Cars - but this is a bit of an exaggeration)...abandoned lots and buildings, a whole bunch of buildings places that look like they're 50 years old or older...you get the idea.
In fact, I wouldn't be very surprised to see all the people gone soon and zombies wandering around.

Well, I've got to try to catch up on some other stuff while I still have Wi-Fi, so that's it for now - I might include some photos at a later time.

21:05 EST (8:05 CST) update:
We arrived here at the Comfort Inn & Suites in Cookeville a bit ago, and here I am at the desk, on my laptop...wishing I had the time to be online more and do photography stuff, write, and more.
Anyway, I should mention that my parents made a security deposit on the house we looked at yesterday, so we're going to rent it in July. It is a pretty house and larger than the one we're living in now, but I'll be sharing a room with my brothers. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of it, but I'll have plenty of opportunities to do that in July and afterwards.

Offline

I just wanted to let you all know that I probably won't be online for a while, so I haven't disappeared or anything...I'll try to catch up with your blogs and post on my blog when I'm back.

My first Scavenger Hunt Sunday + Macro Monday Once Again

SOOC:

Aye mate, it's not particularly interesting, the alarm clock shouldn't be in the photo, and yours truly is far from a good model. However, it's SOOC and it did take me a bit to set up the lighting like this.

Sprouting:

Le onion.

Isn't it Ironic:

I just had to do this the difficult and complicated way and take a photo of my iPhone with my camera on a tripod rather than just using the screen capture feature...which I did afterwards (it's the second photo). Work smarter, not harder, eh?

Anyway, I find it slightly ironic that while smartphones are getting smarter and smarter and have tons of features, it's more difficult than it used to be to simply make a phone call. I doubt it's ironic, but incidentally, phones and bombs are getting smarter and smarter while kids are getting dumber and dumber...

Lazy:

Not too lazy; just resting for a bit. :)

Smells like spring:

I didn't actually smell this flower, but I suppose it smells nice.

This was my first attempt (other than another earlier today) at using a texture on one of my photos, so that should explain why this isn't very impressive...I have so much to learn about PS editing.

I used Ashley Sisk's Nice & Easy action and Kim Klassen's dustyrose texture (at least I think it was that one).

I can do better than this, I know...or at least I should be able to do better than this.

Insignificant 19?

I'd say so, anyway. And just like today is not particularly interesting so far (yes, today is my 19th birthday), here's a self-portrait that's not particularly interesting as well, especially since I left my alarm clock in it.

Well, it is SOOC...now I'm off to learn about PS actions, textures, and more so I won't just have boring photos like this one. I still have to go to work today, but at least I'm not closing today (as in, not staying until 11, 12 or later, depending on if the store closes at 11 or 12 and how much stuff there is to clean up).

After May Day comes Macro Monday

I haven't taken any good photos recently, but I have lots of ideas...if only I can bring them to fruition.
Here are a couple I've used for other linkups I think are actually halfway decent; they're way better than some I took earlier today of flowers in my front yard:

Here's yet another familiar I've used before (for Macro Monday), so it might look familiar:

Epic Fail

According to Molly from Rocketboom, epic fail is "Just like fail, but with epic proportions."

I posted a video of people doing some pretty amazing stuff before, here.
However, if you're in the mood for laughing, here are some videos of people being quite a bit less-than-amazing, as well as some other hilarious things such as a girl throwing a water bottle and hitting Justin Bieber in the head, as well as a few clips I didn't find all that funny, but you can always skip those.
And I know there are the annoying ads, but they're worth it for some of these:
http://comedy.video.yahoo.com/?l=24038736&v=25055655