This Summer

So this summer wasn't an entire loss.

The Starlite Car Cruise, which claims to be the largest car cruise on the east coast, takes place every Friday during the summer at the North Way Christian Community Church. It has been a staple of my summers for the past few years. They have everything from the Model T to Lamborghinis, but mostly classic cars. If you have ever seen a classic car driving around western PA on a Friday chances are that it was heading to/from this event. The best part is that it is sponsored entirely by local businesses so everything is free (except the food). There are even prizes for cars of the weekly theme. The theme when I attended was horsepower but all cars are welcome. The photo above was taken there. Some of my favorite photos over the years have been of cars at the car cruise.

Shifting gears, I have been working on a facebook app for quite some time. When I first started I was quite enthusiastic about it. Unknowingly at the time, I made a poor decision about my hosting provider. Being a cheap college student I went with a free hosting provider. After making a ton of progress and just before release the provider closed down with no warning. Everything which was not backed up was lost, that constitutes everything I made because I hadn't backed up any of it. All the code along with the entire database was lost. That happened a little over a year ago. This story should be a lesson about backing up data and free hosting providers. Since then I have found another free provider (don't say anything) with a better record. Now the application is up and running better than before. The first version did not use any javascript. The new version uses it with plans to use more. The Facebook Javascript (FBJS) sandbox is more capable than I had originally thought. I didn't even have to deal with the nitty-gritty of AJAX. FBJS has a high level AJAX class to handle everything! For those wondering, the application allows one to give nicknames to his/her friends. It's called My Nickname. The next feature to be released is a profile box.

The other major achievement of my summer is the understanding of the impact of people in photographs. If you know my photography habits this goes without saying, but I like candid photos. The problem with that is most people in candid photos don't like them. My habits saw a shift this summer. I now take hardly any photos of people, and when I do they are usually small and far away. Replacing candid shots is macro shots. Macro pictures don't typically work with people. So I have taken drastically fewer photos of people. Looking back at the macro photos I keep thinking, "ok it's cool, but not engrossing." When I go back to school in a few weeks I will be working on photographing people. (Roomies be warned) This was all made possible by the Project 365 which I am participating in. If you have no clue what that is go read my post just before starting it.

Side note: The frequency of these posts is lower than I like, that will be changing.

Between semesters

The fall semester has been over for almost three weeks now.

The bookstore just posted the list of required books for next semester which has brought me back to reality.

I have really been enjoying winter break. It is one month of not having to worry about classes or homework. My time can be spent preparing for other things, like my hobbies. Last year I attempted to complete the Project 365 and failed. For anyone that doesn't know about the various 365 groups or won't click the link, Project 365 is a photography project wherein the participant takes a picture everyday for a year. I was going strong last year when I unknowingly dropped my camera in the snow. It was not long after that when I discovered what happened but could not find my camera. A few weeks later my camera was found and returned to me but I had already missed a few days and had to start over. This year I will be starting on January 1st like many other people. Many of the photos from my first attempt involved school. The new attempt will be no different except that it may be my last semester.

Boozel Dining Hall has been closed for renovations since the end of last spring semester. It is scheduled to open on January 9th, just in time for the semester to begin.



This will make things vastly simpler concerning food. Boozel is the closest dining hall to almost all of the dorms. That is actually why it was being renovated. With the construction of the new dorms, Boozel was often reaching capacity. Now, it will be able to handle many more people dining and will be serving an improved menu.