Painting with light

With the help of Pinar Istek, Sarah Midgorden, Allison Ziemba, and Ally Anderson this turned out to be a fun project.

multiple flash

Lindsay Moser and I shot a dance class by a group called Center Stage.

great multimedia piece

Great multimedia story

Color correction

Hard assignment. not so much in making the pictures with proper exposure, but rather in getting the color temp. synced. oi.

Single flash

Single flash was insanely hard and frustrating, but if nothing else, the arrow telling the guy getting arrested where to go is certainly humorous .

Metal and Glass

For the glass assignment I came up with a few different ideas, but I felt this one was far and away the best. The point is to be romantic and cute without being overly syrupy. It was tons of fun, and I am pretty pleased with the result. Check out my partners metal project on her blog. it's pretty fresh.

sp_hindj

Erin Schwartz poses in the photo studio in Lee Hills Hall on Saturday, Feb. 13. This image's backlight was intendedto bring out the vibrance of Erin's red hair. Erin is very proud of her hair.

Erin Schwartz poses for a portrait in the photojournalism photo studio on Saturday, Feb. 13. I wanted to bring out Erin's playful personality. She is a very ambitious person who takes her work extremely seriously. In contrast, she loves to joke around and tries not to take herself too seriously.

Until further notice

Until further notice, you shall all see To Be Announced as my new name on this blog, not jamaican sensation. There was no logic behind it, and it was stupid. Now I shall think of something else.
Also, does Radstam work as a stage name? I say 'no,' but I could be persuaded otherwise.

Well then, welcome to my world.

So, I have my oddities. For instance, I like comic books, I like graphic novels, I like (to some extent) superheroes. As it may or may not be known to some, I shall illuminate one of my personal favorite comic heroes: Batman.
Batman is a badass. It's just a fact of life. He is freakin cool.
Why do I write this? because "THE DARK KNIGHT," the sequel to "BATMAN BEGINS," comes out next summer. Long way away? yes. but, irrelevant. I am already FREAKING PUMPED. A new trailer just came out, and OMG I think I had to go change my pants afterwards. So GO, GO AND WATCH IT, for it is glorious.
NEW TRAILER!

Christmas: what better way to celebrate the birth of christ than with... Chocolate?

A NEW BLOG POST!

I haven't posted in a long time, so this one is gonna be long

Chapter I
Alright, first things first. Last night I went to a cafe' with all the Ultimate people after we had practice as we always do on friday nights. Last night was special though, because I heard one of the funnier things I have heard since I have been here. And this may have just seemed funny to me because I know more about German culture than the average person, but I shall share it anyways. So we were all sitting around drinking whatever it is that we each had, and this one girl, Marie, seems to absolutely FASCINATED by her bendy straw as she drinks her passion fruit juice. The rest of us laugh at her and ask why she is so entranced by her straw, to which she responds, "Was? Im Osten hatten wir nur die geraden." Which means, "What? In East Germany we only the had the straight ones."
With a mix of german cultural commentary and kid like fascination, it was really funny.

Chapter II - Nürnberg
Last saturday I went to the Christmas Market in Nürnberg with 5 French people and a German. Nürnberg has one of the largest and most famous christmas markets in all of germany, and it was REALLY cool. I didn't really buy much christmassy stuff, but I bought 2 candles made out of actual beeswax and I got a lot of food. I also had some Glühwein, which, if you don't know what that is, it is a special type of red wine that the germans drink at christmas time... but you drink it hot... like tee or something. It is weird, but not bad. The rest of the time in Nürnberg was good, but the German girl that had been with us had left earlier, so I was stuck with 5 french people to go home with. Now I have nothing against french people whatsoever. In fact 1 of them is my flat-mate Anna, who is very nice, plus her boyfriend and some friends of hers. The only problem was that Anna's boyfriend doesn't know German, so they spoke french the entire way home. So I got to hear a good 4 hours worth of really fast French, of which I was able to pick out some numbers and maybe a couple small phrases here and there. Regardless it was a very fun trip and I am glad I got to go.

Chapter III- BIG NEWS!
So, on the 21st of december I am leaving Germany. On the 7th of January I shall be returning to Germany. Oh what's that you ask? Where will I be going for those 2+ weeks? ITALY. That's right. I am spending Christmas in Italy. I gave 3 Italian friends who live in Torrino, who I spending the first week or so with (including christmas). I will get to see a Juventus game (torrino soccer team), perhaps go skiing (that is where the 2006 winter olympics were), and all sorts of fun stuff. On the 29th and 30th I will be seeing my friend Giorgio. We get to see Padova (small town outside of venice) and on the 30th I actually get to see Venice! so pumped. 31st-7th I really have few plans, so I need to organize stuff, but here is what I am thinking. 31st and 1st I spend in Balogna. The 2nd and 3rd I spend in Florence. The 4h 5th and 6th I spend in ROME! then on the 7th I go to Pisa, where my plane leaves from and takes me back to stuttgart. Jealous yet? you should be. I am SO FREAKING excited! Granted, when I get back I will be dead tired, but it'll have been worth it.

Chapter IV- MORE big news
Jessica has officially bought her plane ticket to come visit me on her spring break. She will be flying out on Mar. 7th and returning (I think) on the 16th. We will spend some time in Tübingen, Heidelberg, Bonn, Cologne, and then 3 days in Paris (that's in france). Then I think my mom is coming in the succeeding two weeks, but nothing is set in stone yet

Chapter V
I got a package from my dad and Sandy last week. It was really nice. Now I have enough beef jerky and red hot riblets to last me 'til Armageddon. OH YEAH, and nature valley bars. Those were a really nice surprise, cause the germans don't really have those.

Chapter VI
Classes are going OK. I hate my translation class. I really like my Grammar class and my 'reading and conversation' class (the teachers are excellent). Graphic novels is pretty good. I don't always like class as much because of some of the students, the teacher, and the slug like pace we move at, but I am trying to be patient with it. My Kafka class is still kicking my ass, as it will continue to do until the end of February. I just find it so hard to keep myself motivated to just sit down and WORK for massive amounts of time. I just can't do it and I don't feel like I am improving. BLAH. French is getting better. I feel like I am actually learning stuff now, I just need to study and practice more.

Chapter VII - another anecdote
The other day I was standing on the bridge of the Neckar River at the bus stop, just waiting for my bus to take me home, and some little old lady walks up and asks me and the girl, who happens to also be waiting for the bus, if the #5 bus has come. We both reply that it is indeed already past, to which the old woman replies... IN ENGLISH, "SHIT!" Little old german women cursing in english is funny.

Oh yeah, and tomorrow I might get to see Robert Martin. 3 cheers for Rodort!

More later... but remember, "Be excellent to one another!"

Alrighty, so... New things here in germany: NOTHING
nothing is new. I read. A lot. Everyday. What do I read? Kafka. More Kafa. Analysis of Kafka. Then when I am done with that... O wait, I generally am never DONE with kafka work. So anybody who might potentially miss me and wonders what wonderful new and exciting things are going on here, wonder no more, for there are none. This leaves me with really short conversations with friends and relatives. So if you want to save yourself the time, just read this post, and you will no longer need to call me.

I got really tired of going to parties pretty fast, which is good, because I now no longer have time to go out to parties. I have THAT much studying to do. It is good studying. I am learning a lot. My german reading abilities are seriously skyrocketing. I like some of my classes, others not so much. The ISP courses are pretty much a joke, so they balance out my week quite well due to the obscene amount of time it takes me to read Kafka stuff.

I also go to Ultimate on monday and friday nights, and I think it helps keep me sane. I get to exercise (stay healthy), talk to people (stay slightly socially active), talk to people IN GERMAN (improve german speaking and listening skills), play ultimate (arguably my favorite sport), and just do some good old 'running my ass off' and get some endorphins going (helping me not go crazy and depressed). So that is always lots of fun, plus the people at Ultimate are generally really nice, and some of them aren't actually too bad.

Oddities about myself. ok, so I have this really weird ability to adapt to change quite well. This can often be good, sometimes not. Meaning, not having a car, or even being in a car at all, doesn't bother me that much. Being completely on my own, not seeing my family and friends, being around completely new people, dealing with a new educational system, having new languages thrown around daily, and all that other crazy 'international' stuff that freaks people out and makes them homesick, or lonely, or stressed because of a new culture doesn't really bother me. Sure, I kinda miss seeing my family and friends, but honestly, I haven't really gotten super homesick, I haven't broke down crying wanting to come home, or anything else of the sort. Sure, I guess you could also call that emotional detachment, but I'll stick with "adapts well to change. I have a hard course load, but I study a lot. Most of my focus is, therefore, diverted from home. I have some friends here. I don't mean to say that I just hang out with my friends here and forget that everybody in the States exists, but I don't feel super duper sad that I am not at home either. I know that I would just get stressed and frustrated were I at home anyways. I am gonna be spending a lot of time in the library studying this semester, and I won't have lots of free time. So if I don't get to talk to people back at home much, I am not dead, and I do still love you all, I just have a lot going on.
Also, one things Germany lacks (for me at least)... IS DRAMA. and that is a good thing. I feel like so much of my life back home (especially when at mizzou) is wrapped up in drama, and thank the lord!, cause i don't really deal with that here. and i like it.

Well, back to Franz (Kafka). Adios Amigos.

Olfactory euphoria baby

So as it may not be known to all, I shall divulge the information concerning my absolute favorite smell in the world. NEW SHOES. Dear lord they smell so good. Yesterday I got a new pair of indoor shoes so I can play ultimate this winter (they play indoors in the winter here. HOW WEIRD), and OMG do they smell amazing. I have put off wearing them until now just so I can go on smelling the pristine goodness until I have to stink them up with my feet. Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well!

IT'S STILL OCTOBER!

WTF. It's freaking snowing. No joke. It is 9:20 on Sunday the 21st of October, and it is snowing. Not flurrying, SNOWING. goddammit. This is gonna be one LONG winter. Well it was good knowing you all, if I don't come back, I will probably be found in some stupid snow drift. I better buy some long johns. Oh well. Gotta go get my study on... and my jacket.

The semester started this week. Although, most of my classes don't actually begin until next week. And I finally have my schedule all worked out. I will probably end up dropping onoe of these classes, but here it is. (OH, and german classes are based on ECTS (european credit transfer system) credits, and i get about .5 US credit hours per ects.

-The works of Franz Kafka (8ects)
-Graphic Novels in American literature (english) (6ects)
-French 1 (3ects)
my other classes are in the ISP, which is the international language department. They offer german classes for foreigners.
-Grammar for the experienced (5ects)
-Reading and conversation (5ects)
-'translation puzzle' (Class for english speakers on translation)(4ects)

Last night I got to have dinner with all of my roomates. This was really cool, since I didn't really know any of them that well. There are 2 german girls, a german guy, a spanish guy, and a french girl. We all cooked something small and sat around and talked for a really long time. It was loads of fun.
Germans are still hard to understand sometimes due to accent and speed of their speech.

So things are good. I am very much hoping the semester starts off well, and assuming my dead corpse doesn't get shipped back to the US because of my dying from stress and overstudying for my kafka class, I believe all will be fine.

Numb

6 Million. That's a big freakin number. That is the just over the approximated population of Missouri. That is how many Jews died at the hand of the National Socialists during the third Reich. I don't know about you guys, but 6 mil. isn't exactly an easy idea to grasp. St. louis, gone. KC, gone. ALL of freakin missouri, gone. We have become so desensitized to the idea of the holocaust, that the ideas of what actually happened are just vague gray areas in our minds. We have practically become NUMB. But this week I got to go the jewish memorial in Berlin, and I got to read about the families murdered in WWII. It's some freaky shit. The bible doesn't say: " be a bitch to your neighbor. Oh, and try and exterminate every Jew in Europe while you are at it." But whether you believe in what the bible says or not, the catastrophic extermination of that many people is one of the scariest things I can think of. If you have never actually been to a concentration camp, lemme tell ya, its pretty sobering.
Hate will always brew up more hate, so go sit down and think about if you are making a positive influence. Forget about every shoot 'em up, romantic comedy, and every other fantasy 'never REALLY gonna happen film,' and look back at reality. Because this shit happened.

Dookie

I always thought that 'dookie' was a cool word

So I have all my classes figured out except one. My french class. The online signup thing didn't get put up when it was supposed to, so now I am on the waiting list. I have been talking to people, even went to the office, but no luck yet. I think I shall have to resort to being petty and playing the germans of game of being a bureaucratical jerk, maybe then I will get my way.

Anyways... BERLIN. So I went to Berlin last week, and IT WAS AWESOME. I had never been to Berlin, so yeah, everything was new and cool and WOW. I got to see so much stuff, I would end up boring myself trying to write it all here. But some of the highlights included:
-the tv tower built in east germany (possibly tallest structure in berlin, not sure though)
-Charlottenburger Castle (Mom might have a heart attack if she saw the landscaping at this place)
-Potsdam (suburb of Berlin). There is an area there with like 3 castle/ palaces, a cool windmill, this "chinese house" building, a gorgeous fountain, and OMG it is some of the most beautiful architecture I have ever seen in my life. It was breathtaking.
-Olympia Stadium. This is where Berlin's Soccer team (hertha) plays. It is also where the 2006 world cup championships were held, and it was built for the 1936 Olympics, this is where hitler gives his famous opening ceremony speach I believe
-Brandenburger gate. On the east/west border of berlin right at the wall. Big cool structure with lots of history.
- Berlin wall. There are two different parts of it still up, one is small and has a museum under it, the other is 1 km long and has murals and spray painted crap that is real cool all over it.
-Jewish memorial/ museum. There is a relatively new memorial in the center of berlin that is a vast expance of concrete blocks. hard to explain without going into detail/actually being there. It was cool, and there is a museum underneath it about the 6 million jews killed in europe in WWII. Fascinating, disturbing, educational.

We also found this cool little italian restraunt that had really affordable and HELLA good food. I also found a wine there that i really liked. Lambrusco. It's a sweet red wine that is freakin delicious. I also got to have a dinner of pork and spaghetti carbonara... COOKED BY ITALIANS. there were 8 of us on the trip, 3 of which were itialians. Not the most timely of people, but damn they can cook. So yeah, that was Berlin, it was sweet... and big.

I am not a jelly donut

The Dubl J is glad to tell everybody that he has been in Deutschland for exactly one month! And that he finds it exciting. Things are goin well and he is pumped\terrified for the semester to start. Also, he wishes to thank squirrels all over the world. They are cool... and spastic.

Happy Unity Day! October 3rd 1990 is the day that east and west germany were re-united, so this is kinda the german 4th of july... except that i dont think many people really "celebrate" it. But pretty much EVERYTHING is closed, plus the buses don't run as much, and I didn't have class.

OK, so the Bodensee (also called lake Constance in english i believe) was freaking awesome. We got to walk around constance for a while, go to the most beautiful church i have ever seen, ride a ferry on the lake, go to a basilika in Friedrichshafen, and get this... we got to hear a 20 min organ concert played on the organ that has 6,666 pipes in this church. it was one of the most amazing things ever. It absolutely blew my mind. Then we got to go to an authentic german restraunt and have a fabulous meal.

The next morning I awoke at 5 am to take a train to Munich for Oktoberfest. It was actually a bit of a let down. we arrived at like 10:30, but pretty much every tent was already full. It was crazy. I don't think i have seen a more concentrated group of people that big in my entire life. The people from my group that did get into a tent had to wait at least 2 hours. I ended up walking around Munich for a long time, and then went back to Tübingen early. So in the end I didn't even get a chance to sit and have a liter of beer with all the crazy drunk germans... though i did see A LOT of lederhose and whatever the female equivelant is.

This week is the last week of the start course, so friday I will have a test.

Things are going really well, I have made some good friends in the start course, and there is one australian guy who kinda reminds me of myself sometimes. He is pretty fun. I feel like I am really gonna be able to do this, and perhaps even do it well. I still can't even fathom what my german is gonna like after 10 months of this! i'm really excited.

At the same time, though, I miss home. I miss spending time withy my awesome mom. I miss having dinner with Bum and Sister. I miss playing with Goosey and Retard and snuggling. I miss talking with Smartkid, even if it is about the most random linguistic stuff I have never heard of. I miss reading Bryan's mind while playing spades. I miss going to the best steakhouse in town for dinner with dad and sandy. And I really miss spending time with Oats.
I don't mean to make everybody think I am depressed here, I really am having a great time, I just miss the people I love back home.

I survive everything you got in that chamber, I thrive off of danger

greetings to the world! I got some sweet news comin your way.

Alright, so class is pretty hard and intense, but I am hanging in there and doing well. I have started to get to know some of the people in it, and some of them are really cool. On Tuesday I played ultimate with the group here, and it kinda sucked. There were only like 7 people, and i didnt have cleats, and some of them kinda sucked a lot. 1 or 2 were actually beginners, it got dark fast, and I feel pretty out of shape. Apparently they play indoors for the first semester.... we shall see how that goes. After ultimate I went to "Stammtisch," which is this german idea of getting together with a group and drinking beer or coffee or whatever. My start course has a stammtisch every tuesday at the "Castle cafe´." It was really fun, although I didn´t actually speak much german because I was surrounde by like 5 australians. One of the guys who I have been talking to quite a bit here is australian. We just sat around and talked about whatever. Sometimes we would marvel at the cultural differences and such things. Sometimes I joke about being a stupid American and ask such things in a really eager voice, "Do you also have automobiles?!"
I almost have my class schedule all worked out for the semester, which is very exciting. I am finally getting organisation and a clue about what the hell I am going to be doing this semester. Also, I should be getting internet in my room within the next few days, so hopefully I won´t have to use this stupid internet cafe´anymore.
Alright, so now for the exciting news! Tomorrow (friday) my start course is going on an excursion to the Boden sea. We get to go to Konstanz, and ride on a boat in the sea, go to a wine garten, and get to see some pretty sweet stuff. It is all day, and I am stoked.
What is almost more exciting, is my plan for saturday. Me and a crapton of the people from the start course are taking a train at 6:30 am to Munich to go to Oktober fest for the day! I feel like this is a once in a lifetime thing and I am pumped. I have wanted to go to oktoberfest, and now it is really happening. And yes, for all of you skeptics out there, I will have a beer. there would practically be no point otherwise. Although I am told it is 8euros for 1 liter of beer.... hella expensive. oh well, you only live once.
lastly, I got a cell phone, so if you want to call me, lemme know and I can give you my number and whatnot. CIAO!