4 Things!!!

4 TV Shows I Watch
1. Chuck
2. Greek
3. NCIS
4. Smallville

4 Things I'm Passionate About
1. Art
2. Books
3. Friends
4. Family

4 Words/Phrases I Use All the Time
1. okokok whatever
2. lmfaoo
3. soooo, whatchoo up to?
4. yeah so?

4 Places I'd Like to Go
1. Prince Edward Island, Canada
2. Ireland
3. Seychelles
4. Greece

4 Things I Did Yesterday
1. Learned some basic photoshop techniques
2. Slept in till 11am
3. Went to Barnes and Nobles with my mom
4. Started a blog for photoshop beginners


4 Things I'm Looking Forward to This Year
1. Graduating!!!
2. Summer Road Trip with my friends
3. Getting a new matress -.-
4. Senior Events

4 Things I Love About Spring
1. Easter Egg Huntss
2. Fashion
3. Weather
4. Flowers start to grow :)

4 Things On My Wishlist
1. Red, converitble VW Buggie
2. The Perfect Boyfriend
3. A job
4. Black gladiator sandals that fit just right

4 People I'm Usually With
1. Olivia
2. Kyle
3. My mom
4. Sami

My Career Options

OK so I'm here at school. and, by the way, I think it's totally awesome I can update my blog at school :) I was thinking about all the times that I've changed my mind about what I want to do with my life and how I still want to do all of these things!

I've gone from wanting to be a teacher, to wanting to be a novelist, to wanting to be a Broadway actress, to wanting to be a journalist, to wanting to be a journalist for National Geographic Magazine, to wanting to be a photojournalist for National Geographic Magazine, to wanting to be a columnist, like a how-to girl for some magazine like Cosmo, to wanting to be a publisher, to wanting to be a photographer, and now to work in graphic design.... Yeah, the list is very long.

Right now I should be working on an article in newspaper, especially since I'm supposed to be setting an example since I'm Sports Editor and what-not, however, I couldn't get the topic of my career out of my head.

First of all, I've realized that I have to do something that I like because, if not, I'm going to end up getting fired from every job I get. I think I've narrowed down what my dream jobs are.

1) On-Staff Photojournalist for National Geographic Magazine, or a similar style of magazine. A job like that I will never be bored in. I will get sent on expeditions to photograph, so I will see the world, I'll get to photograph what I see and I'll get to edit my photographs, which I love to do. Basically, the perfect place for me to be. Whether it is possible or not, I have no idea, but I will try to make it happen.

2) A book publisher or editor. I'm not sure which one it is, but the one who reads manuscripts and then decide which ones are going to be published and set up the book tours and get the design for the cover and all that other stuff. A job where I can read all day and get excited about a book and help an author make it big! Kind of philanthropic in the way that I think about it.

So, I really think those are my two dream jobs, but I'm also really interested in graphic design right now. You know, making advertisements, book covers, laying out magazine/newspaper pages, web pages, etc. I've only just started learning about it, but I'm really excited about it and I think I might do well at it as well as being entertained.

I don't know exactly what I will be doing in the future. My mom says she can see me going places, but I'm pretty sure that's what all moms are supposed to say. For right now, I have ideas about where I want to go and what I want to do. I'll just have to wait and see what it is the future has in store for me. As long as it isn't failure, I think I will be content.

The Ponderings Of a Psycho Woman

if you woke up one day and you were in a different place you have never been and you realized your WHOLE entire life was just a dream, and you look completely different, what would you do ,and please give an extensive explanation :)

i think i would have a freak out. like id probably look inside the mirror (if mirrors exist in this reality ive never seen)and start screaming. id have a mental breakdown and cry. if anyone talked to me id probably twitch lol. but im also very curious so id step out of wherever i live and look around me at this world ive never seen and the people ive never met and wonder about them and wonder what i missed while i was "dreaming" and id sit there and wonder for a day while just freaking out in my head and then the next day id get up and talk to someone and tell them all about the crazy dream i had and id tell myself it was just a dream like im telling this person, probably a psychotherapist, cuz i must be one crazy bitch to have dreamt my whole world and actually believed it. so id say that i know what is real is real but i think deep down, for the rest of my life i wouldnt be able to look in a mirror cuz i wouldnt realize its me and for the rest of my life id bve wondering about all the ppl i had met and become close with in my "dream" and id probly get depressed cu those ppl would be real to me, not the ppl in this alternate reality. not my psychotherapist or my stranger neighbors and family. and id always feel that reality was really the dream, not the pther way around. id never get used to it. please tell me my life isnt a dream cuz i just may cry right now. i thought waaayyyy too much about that....

Miami Metro Zoo

Yesterday I went to Miami Metro Zoo with my two friends Olivia and Sami and I took a ridiculous amount of pictures. I wanted to try taking at least half-decent photos of animals. Here are the results. Some of them have been photoshopped for effect and whatnot.

Some of these photos have human subjects. the black and white one of the girl in the green bamaboo is my best friend, Olivia, as well as the one with the girl posed kind of funny in the fog. This last picture with the little girl was a random girl standing near the misters. I didn't get to find out her name, but I liked the picture anyway. I really enjoyed going to the zoo to take these photos and I didn't even get to visit the aviary :( Next time I go I'm going to and I'm also going to mess with the lighting and stuff because some of the pictures I took came out grayish or so because of the shade and the netting and cages. Also, I need to find out how to take pictures of animals in cages without having the cages become the focus while the animals are unfocused :/ This trip I focused more on the patterns and natural lighting that was provided.

Katt Williams on Haters Video by HATER MAGNET® apparel - MySpace Video

Katt Williams on Haters Video by HATER MAGNET® apparel - MySpace Video

Katt Williams on Haters

HATER MAGNET® apparel | MySpace Video

Walking Home From School

Today I was walking home with my best friend Olivia and we really took to the phrase, "Stopping to smell the roses." It was lucky I had my camera with me for school. I managed to get these great shots of some dandelions that I think were pretty kick-ass :)

Odyssey of My Birth

I finished the Odyssey of My Birth this morning.

On Relationships that are Over...

11:21pmDanielle

yeah well its always gonna be hard when you cared about a person that much

you have to learn to do wats best for you

even if it might hurt them

cuz if n ot you will never heal

youll learn in time

11:22pmAnonymous

ehh i wish this were an easy thing to handle

11:22pmDanielle

its never an easy thing to handle

but life is full of hurdles adn we are meant to get over all of them

youll see eventually things will get better

and then sometimes itll seem like its not, but you realize that its just different, not worse

My Personal Odyssey

Ive come up with an art project and I think it is going to be somewhat of a challenge, but I can't wait to get started on it! I got the idea form an old language arts project of my little brother's. It's called "My Personal Odyssey" and it was originally supposed to be a scrapbook of narrative essays of a bunch of different topics like the story of your birth, education, personal goals, etc.

I've decided to turn it into an art project where each topic is the subject of an art piece in my sketchbook. I've already got some great ideas for some of them, but I'm not sure what to do about the others... Here's the list of topics my brother's teacher gave him:

• The odyssey of your birth
• Your musical odyssey
• Your childhood odyssey- the early years
• Your family odyssey- traditions, family members, family lore, family vacations, interesting and unusual family members
• Your friendship odyssey
• Turning points
• Moments of epiphany
• Your educational odyssey- as a student and a teacher
• Your proud moments, achievements, victories and awards
• Special/favourite characters and people in your life- heroes, role models, fictional chracters
• Your sports, interests, hobbies, passions
• Your future careers odyssey
• Your spiritual journey
• Your maxims, values, philosophy
• Your travel odyssey
• Your hopes, goals, dreams
• Your odyssey for your wellness/well-being... physically, emotionally, mentally, etc.
• Your creative/artistic side (yes, kind of redundant in this case, but just giving a list, and I think this could mean poetry and photography as well)
• Your adventurous side
• The odyssey of your fears and anxiety
• Personality traits
• Anything else you can think of!

I already have two different ideas that I can't choose between for the odyssey of my birth. I was thinking of either doing a colored pencil drawing of a baby in the womb and then journaling the story of my birth and naming or doing a kind of comic strip/graphic novel-type thing that depicted the event. I really like the comic strip idea and I can totally see it in my mind, but I'm just not sure I have the skill to draw it... Either way those are two ideas for that one.

For my friendship odyssey I was going to use photography and photograph me and my best friend. I've considered also sketching as well. I'm still not sure yet.

For my musical odyssey I was thinking of something collage like and multi-media. I was going to either draw or paint the keys of a piano on the bottom of the spread, then break a CD into pieces and make a music note mural and draw a large G-clef sign but in words with the names of all my favorite musicians.

My travel odyssey I was thinking could be a montage: a kind of mix between collage and drawing. I've never done a proper one so I think it could be fun to try it.

I originally thought that each subject would fit on one spread int eh sketchbook, but now that I'm really thinking of it, I think some may take up a couple of pages. Like my family one and maybe even the friendship one. I'll most likely post the scanned images of each page :)

Great Photography and Photoshop Websites for Beginners

So this weekend I found a bunch of really great websites that are absolutely amazing for photography and photoshop that I was really impressed with:
http://www.photographic.com/
This website is really great for a beginner photographer with a lot of tips and tricks about exposure, composition, buying the correct lenses, portrait and landscape photography, etc.
http://psdmag.org/
This website is for a magazine that I recently bought with amazing step by step instructions for using photoshop and some of their articles, and even whole issues, are available for download free on their website. I've already learned a lot of really cool stuff through here.
http://www.simplypsd.com/
This is another photoshop website with great step by step instructions to create some really cool stuff.

The Coconut Grove Art Festival

Unfortunately, at the art festival you cant actually take pictures of the art because it is considered stealing and whatnot, which I totally understand. However, I was very inspired to get started taking photographs of my own!! There were a lot of displays that had flowers on them and I got permission from the artists to take pictures of them. They are all orchids I believe and they were so beautiful and vibrant I thought they were plastic and fake. So here they are!!!

Holy crap! I can send stuff via text message!

I'm new to this whole blogging thing but I figure, if I put my mind to it, I can figure anything out. I really don't expect people to even look at this. It's not like I'm some superstar or some political leader or a proffessional of any kind. All I am is me; 17 year old girl who doesn't even know what is going to happen with her life yet. I guess I'm just creating this because it is a good way for me to write down my important memories, ideas, etc. Oh, and to have a place to display all my art forms. I guess that is what you could call me. An artist. I do photography, sketch, sometimes I paint, I write stories and poems, I dance, I sing and I act. So, yeah, I'm an artist and I need a place to.... vent, I guess. And show off a little probably. Maybe even to inspire. That's my goal in life, you know. To inspire people to do great things. To do the right thing. I feel that, if one day, a famous kind of person is asked who inspired them to do whatever it is they are famous for, I have completes my purpose in life. So I guess I can try to inspire here as well. In general this blog will be kind of like an online diary that everyone can read. I guess that way it won't be so hard to write or to update this. OK i feel better about starting this now.