FanimeCon 2014

Hey everyone!

So this past weekend, I went to FanimeCon 2014 which was incredibly fun and exciting. So much happened in so few days, so let me just go over everything day by day. I'll start with Day Zero (aka Thursday) since that's really when the excitement and festivities began.

Day Zero:
      Unfortunately, this day was still a school day for me. However, I had two midterms and a cancelled class so it was easy enough to leave by noon to get in line for tickets. Now having stood in line for at least an hour before, I was well prepared for LineCon, the unofficial convention named just for the infuriating line. I had brought my laptop and a few books to make sure I wasn't bored silly in line. I met up with my friend Alan beforehand in order to save money and carpool. However, once we got to the convention center, LineCon only lasted six minutes. Those six minutes were spent walking through the ropes to get to registration. Seriously, there was no line. That never ever happens at Fanime. It was absolutely astounding. So we left to hang out at school with the rest of the Stormblades. We got back to school at 1:30 to chill with Evan who was just hanging out after lunch. When Andy and Kenji made it out of class at 3:30, Alan and I mentioned that the line was amazingly short. So I drove Andy, Alan, and Evan around downtown San Jose so that Andy could grab his badge too. We made it back to Andy's car around 4:10 so he had time to spare to get to work that day. Hoang, Alan, Evan and I all hung out at school a bit longer before we agreed to go home briefly to grab dinner before meeting to see X-Men: Days of Future Past. After seeing the movie at midnight, we hung out until around 3am when I drove to Alan's house, where I planned to stay in order to carpool for Fanime.

Day One:
      I made it to Alan's house easily enough, though Apple Maps took me a convoluted route. I waited until Alan made it back from dropping off two different people who also went to the movies with the group to grab my stuff from the truck of my car. We both waited until Andy got there and somehow managed to stay up til around 5am before we finally slept. We woke up around 10am in order to get to a panel at 11. But Andy is not a morning person at all, so we ended up getting out the door by around 11. Whoops. We got to Fanime and decided that the pane wasn't at the top of our list and decided to grab some lunch. There was gyros truck down the road between where we parked and the Con that smelled phenomenal when we walked past it the first time, so I suggested we grab something there. Alan had never had gyros before and while the gyros were good, they weren't great. Alan and Andy loved them though and wanted to come back every day. The rest of the day was mostly relaxed and we only went to one or two panels, but for the most part we spent the day exploring the Convention Center, the Dealer's Hall, and the Artist's Alley. We went back to Alan's to grab a bite to eat for dinner and also to grab something warmer for me and more comfortable for Andy before we headed back to hit the "Nerd Courting" panel. "Nerd Courting" was exactly what it sounded like; the speaker, Adam, talked about the difficulties of being a nerd and trying to make romantic connections. The best part in my opinion, besides Adam's credibility, was the fact that most of the panel was Adam answering questions. So it wasn't a bunch of things that everyone already understood and knew, it was real questions that applied to our own lives. I won't repeat a lot of what happened in the panel, because quite frankly it was on a very personal level. However, a few examples included questions about why it's worthwhile to even ask a girl or guy out, what you have to lose, what kinds of relationships are healthy. And the one that really got me, cause I thought it was just a girl thing or something: creating an imagined relationship with someone you just met. Adam mentioned that at the beginning and one guy came up to ask where he'd gotten it from since this guy in particular claimed not to. Adam had people raise their hands if they did ad nearly everyone in the audience did. I definitely feel a little less weird for doing it now. We went back to Alan's after the panel finished, that is around midnight, planned when to get up for the next day and crashed.

Day Two:
      We got up early this day. Kind of. Okay so here's what happened: we planned to wake up around 7:30 to get ready and get to a panel by 9, also figuring there'd be a line for it. Problem? Andy slept until around 8:15. And he took the longest to get ready because he was cosplaying Eren from Attack on Titan. Don't know what that is? Here's a side-by-side comparison from anime to real life:

Those straps man. Those took a while. So we made it to the con by 9:10. Good thing the panel was going on for a little while. Fortunately, there were still seats when we finally arrived. The panel was for SNK aka Attack on Titan, so it was an appropriate choice of cosplay despite the fact that it took a while. The panel was an entertaining collection of improv games done in character by the panelists. The three of us who went all enjoyed the panel and had the chance to talk with some of them afterwards. Of course it helped that I knew one of the panelists. We hit lunch at Johnny Rockets before heading to an SNK gathering. Andy joined in the fun of the photos while I enjoyed the serenity of the park. Two much older gentleman sat down on a park bench next to me to ask what on earth was happening. I explained enthusiastically about Fanime and the cosplay community. We laughed a little since they both said they'd lived in the area for 35 years and had no idea what it was. They thought it was an LGBT march when in fact this was the 20th anniversary year of FanimeCon. At that point, a friend I'd met at Rocky Horror, Craig, was walking by in a Doctor Whooves Cosplay minus the tail and ears. I called out to say hi, excused myself from the gentlemen at the park bench and walked with Craig toward the area where the SNK gathering had migrated to. Alan had gone to meet with his brother by that time, so I had just planned to continue watching the gathering shenanigans. Craig and I caught up briefly, before he went to change out of the incredibly warm trench coat he was wearing to something much more comfortable to roam the rest of the con. Finally, after the SNK gathering was over and Alan had rejoined us, we met up with Evan, cosplaying the 10th Doctor, as well as Hoang, Lauren, and Michael. Sadly, I don't think we got a group shot, though I did get some of them individually. 

Evan and his "sonic screwdriver". 

Michael and Godzilla, photo credits: Hoang Nguyen 

We ended up walking around the floor since the people we met up with didn't have passes and found a cardboard tardis set up down the hall. Evan managed to get pictures with at least 15 different groups of cosplayers all wanting to get a picture with a doctor. Eventually, we all decided there really wasn't anything else we needed to stay for and headed to Alan's place to watch a movie. Movie of choice? Mulan, of course! Though there was quite a bit of debate over which movie to watch. The movie ended and Evan, Hoang, Michael, and Lauren all decided to go home. Andy, Alan, and I continued the movies though with Naussica of the Valley of the Wind. I fell asleep unfortunately, though I woke up at the end. Good thing I've seen the movie before. All of us were exhausted and headed to bed once it was over. 

Day Three:

      Ah Sunday morning. We had to wake up a bit early because Andy wanted to see Chantral Strand, a guest of honor at Fanime. While they headed to their panel, I had to drop off some black and white ball stuff in my cousin's hotel room and shower. We planned to go to the speed dating event, but the line was wayyyy too full. So I met up with Andy after the panel while Alan went to find a girl he had met earlier. Andy and I hung out until we ran into an unsuccessful Alan. We grabbed lunch and before Alan and Andy went to a signing by the voice actress from earlier. Meanwhile, I went to get my Black and White Ball stuff because I wanted to make sure I could grab it in time. First time, no luck. So I went back down to meet the guys after the autograph line. I went back up to the hotel with them. Second time, still no luck. Finally, we were wandering around the floor when the guys discovered that a cosplayers they love, Vampy, was at Fanime. It became a mad dash to find her. Somehow we all separated, so I went to the hotel room for the third time. Finally! I managed to grab the ball stuff. Aka, my dress. I came out of the hotel victorious, then wondered where in the heck everyone was. I managed to find Andy next to a motorcycle decked out to look a bit like Senketsu from Kill la Kill. He was getting pictures of some of the cosplayers posing on the bike as well as discussing the bike itself with the owner. After a while, the bike owner left with the motorcycle and we wandered around to continue to find Vampy. Eventually, Alan and another guy we know, Jesus, caught up with us and helped us look. Alan was the one who won the race and we all ran over to greet her. 

Me and VampyBitMe!!

Then I changed into my Ball dress and put my stuff in Alan's car. I went to grab my phone when I realized that oh snap. I left it in the bathroom at the Fairmont. I ran back as fast as I could and discovered the security had it. I got it back, thank goodness and headed to the ball. Andy and Alan went their own way in the meantime. I danced with plenty of different folks, most of them completely terrible, but they definitely made it amusing. Except for when I was elbowed in the face. Not so fun. I started feeling really sick though, so I left the ball and called them to tell them I was out. They came and found me at the Fairmont, feeling slightly better, but not enough to move. We went back to Alan's, charged our phones, I changed into something way more comfortable and we headed back to fanime. We ended up playing BS, where thanks to my lunch bunch's training I won about four out of six times. Then we headed out to the rave. Alan and I ended up leaving early because we weren't really into it and just played speed until 4 am. Andy stayed until it shut down at four. Then we watched some amvs and watched Wolf Children. We ended up leaving around 6:30 in the morning. I drove my car back home so I could go to a doctor's appointment later and ended up crashing until about 10 am. 

Day Four:

      Alright. I'm separating here cause this is when my Monday really began. I got up and ran to my cousin's hotel room because I had accidentally left some shower stuff in her room. I went to the dealers hall, bought some cool ear cuffs and headed back to my car to go to my doctors appointment. Then I headed back to hang out with Alan and Andy some more. We ended up hanging out until around 7 pm, getting dinner and having an unofficial photo shoot for Andy who was in his SNK gear. We ended the day hanging out at Hoang's place getting another dinner. 

Guys, I'm not going to lie, it took me four days to write this post. Everything kept blurring together. I had to ask Alan twice what happened which days. It was a lot of fun though. At the end of our time at the convention center, the three of us who had stuck together the whole time got a picture in front of the con center. 

Andy, Alan, and I

I have a post for you guys hopefully coming up tomorrow, so stay posted. How was your Memorial Day weekend? Let me know!

With Love, 

PolarBearMoose <3

Artsy Stuffs!

I'm so freakin' excited right now. Like, you have no idea.

First, updates on just life in general. I finally got my voice back!! YAY! So excite. Such wow. Also, it's a three day weekend, so yippee!

Second week of classes went fairly well. I only had psych class twice cause the teacher was out on Monday and Thursday. I'm not complaining. I'm making some really exciting spring break plans, though I don't want to say anything in case it doesn't end up happening. When I know for sure that it is, I will update for sure.

Onto why I'm so excited:

So, 500px is great for just photography and stuff, but it doesn't seem to be all that well known of a site. So even though I sell prints there (at least I'm pretty sure I am), I don't really sell a lot of prints. So, I decided to take advantage of the Deviant Art account that I've had open for the past three years, but never uploaded anything. So I just uploaded a couple of my photos to Deviant Art (links to my profile are in the sidebar) and I will be selling prints on Deviant as well! Of course, I don't necessarily expect to get any more business this way, but it would be really, really cool if I did. I'm just gonna go upload some more photos so I have more than 7 there, though not all of them will be available as prints. Eek! Super duper uber excited right now. But yeah, you should check it out.

Okay, enough shameless self-promotion.

What kind of exciting things have you all been up to? Let me know!

With Love,
PolarBearMoose <3

My Weekend *UPDATED*

So, these past few days have been kind of crazy busy. Thursday, I started a massive to do list longer than my arm. And I continued that list into the weekend and even made myself one for tomorrow. I kid you not, the next week is going to be nuts. I'm really just trying to stay busy until Thanksgiving break. I'm counting down the days, so it's probably going to be a long week.

But here are some things that I didn't get around to blogging about until today:

Friday November 15th:

I went to digital photography! And got to model! I'm very excited to go back on Monday and visit a little more. And since it was a Friday, I got to stick around longer to talk to people cause my class didn't start until 11:30! Woot!

But then, I went to a camera store to see if I could get my twin reflex past this one step I was stuck on to keep building it. And they told me the spring was the wrong size, soooo, it won't work. Ugh!! So now I have to call the company and ask about it. Joy.

So I went to this Thanksgiving party thing at my dad's work, which was pretty boring since I don't really know anyone there. I left pretty early to go to my grandma's place and got caught in rush hour traffic, when my car started over heating! It took another 10 minutes for me to be able to pull into a gas station and actually do something about it. Darned rush hour traffic. Fortunately, I don't think anything was broken in my car. I think it just needed coolant. And lots of it. I made it safely to my grandma's but poor Gertie (My car's name is Gertrude) is going in for a check-up this weekend.

Saturday November 16th:

I went to IKEA with my grandma cause we were getting a new desk for my room. I'm super excited! Yay! And we found the perfect desk chair to go with it too. Score! Anyways, my grandma's never been to IKEA before, so it was an adventure to get there and walk around. Lauren met us there to help us find stuff. We'd have been lost otherwise. I found the desk, but it was order only, so we decided to do that along with the chair. We headed back to my mom's house where Lauren and I hung out for an hour before going to the mall.

It was really just a people watch experience. But I got some cool bracelets out of it! And I got to know Raz, Lauren's girlfriend, a little better too, so al in all, I'd say it was a good day. Also, I made plans to hang out with Christy tomorrow. Hoorah!

Today!

So, I have to keep doing laundry, but later I get to chill with Christy and Lauren which is something the three of us have not done in forever. Anyways, I guess that's all.

Tell me how your weekend or week has been! Maybe you have a crazy story or an awesome thing going on, I don't know!

With that I bid you adieu!

With love,
PolarBearMoose <3

------------------ *UPDATED 11/19/13*---------------------

So about Gertie. Remember how I said she was going in for a check-up? Yeah. So my step-dad decided to wait until Sunday to try to take her in. Whatevs. Except the shop was closed on Sundays. So I had to drive his car to school Monday since Gertie still needed to go in. Again, whatevs. It wasn't a big deal to drive a different car, except that my ping permit for school is a window sticker. On Gertie. So guess who forgot to buy a temp one at school Monday morning? This girl. Even better, guess who got a $45 parking citation for not having a permit? This girl. Am I angry at the security that gives citations? No, not really. Am I pissed and frustrated about my car not going in til Monday afternoon? You bet I am. And on top of her needing to go in, she definitely has a leak somewhere in the coolant system or radiator or where ever it is. Which means dear readers, I don't have a parking permit for school for probably the next week. So I asked my friend Tim where he parks, cause I know he doesn't park on campus, and he told me basically across the street, but said it was a 5 to 10 minute walk. No big. I can deal. The parking is free, and I'd rather do that than pay close to $15 for a week of parking on campus. *sigh* Anyways, I need to get back to my to do list. Adios.

It's November!

Well, I feel pampered. Let's face it, as nerdy as I am, I'm also pretty girly. Friday, the first day of November, was my little brother's birthday, but before we all went to dinner, my grandma and I kind of had our own little day. We went and got mani-pedis. Which was truly relaxing ad a nice break from the craziness of classes and everything else. Keegan was excited for his birthday and being able to go to Bennihana's. I have to admit, I'm super glad he chose there: a) because normally he chooses the Fish Market :P and b) we almost never get to go out to Bennihana's because of the price, but their fried rice is one of my favorite things. Anyways, Keegan's birthday was a big success in the eyes of the little one. He had a super fun star-wars themed, well, everything including cake and gifts.

But back to being pampered. I had my hair done on Saturday because while the blonde and brown thing was nice for the summer, I needed something new for fall and winter.

Yeah! I got bangs! And it's a little darker than my natural hair color, but I really like it. Sorry about the quality by the way. It's from my ipod cause setting up my DSLR for a selfie seemed a little...extreme. Though, I do get some very nice quality selfies from that camera. Also the lighting in my room really stinks despite my best efforts. (I.e. the lanterns in the background that string around my whole room and other various lamps).
Anyways, after I got my hair all cut and stuff, I got to go shopping for some desperately needed jeans. It's getting cold! And I got rid of a lot of my jeans over the summer to make room for shorts. Whoops. But I now have jeans that I don't absolutely hate trying to pull myself into in the morning. Hooray!

Anywho, Saturday was spent pretty much just doing that. By the time my mom and I left the mall, we were both pretty thoroughly exhausted. Yes, I go shopping with my mom. She's my fashion advice expert.

Sunday, I headed out with Lauren to a Homestuck DS/Kigu/PJ meet-up. Which was a little bit better than Rocky Horror in the sense that I felt a little more welcomed by this crowd even though it was mostly the same people. I also found out that Rhea thought I was someone else when she saw me at school the past few weeks. The conversation as Lauren and I were leaving went something like this:

Me: So I guess I'll see you at school, Rhea?
Rhea: Wait, we go to the same school?
Me: Yeah....? I've said hi to you a couple times...
Rhea: Ohhhh!! You have a similar face to someone else I know, and I thought they were the one all of a sudden talking to me. That makes sense now.

Yeah. Fun times. Anyways, school today was just pretty much normal, although tomorrow I have my first midterm. But I won't bore you with the details of classes. Cause we really didn't do anything exciting today.

Okay, well, I have to go do some homework and studying before I go to college group, so with that, I bid you adieu!

With Love,
PolarBearMoose <3

Forgiveness

NOTE: For all of the cosplayers that are looking for photos I took from the NorCal Gathering, I'll be posting them on my 500px page soon. The link is in the sidebar, check it out. The pics should be up by Tuesday.

And now, onto the actual post.

Forgiveness is a powerful thing. I know I seem to talk about this topic a lot, but it's true. Forgiveness is powerful. You may be asking, what is prompting this post? Well, I spoke with someone who I once considered a friend today, and in theory, would like to call them a friend again. We haven't spoken in almost two years because of a huge fight that we had. Things were said and done that can't be taken back. But over the summer, I sent him an email telling him I forgave him. Which was true. I had at that point. Apparently, he never got it. And so he emailed me earlier this week asking to talk and I agreed. So we've been talking this week about various things, when he asked why I forgave him. Even now, I don't know that I can really explain it in the right way, but the important part was that I did and that my anger had totally subsided (as had his). I attempted an explanation, but he still couldn't quite get it. And I realized just how powerful it is. But what I realized is that you have to be able to forgive yourself for both the big and little mistakes to be able to understand why someone else would do it. Maybe that's not always true. But it seems to happen that way a lot in situations I've been in.

I guess that's all.

Hope y'all are having a great weekend!

With Love,
PolarBearMoose <3

Rocky Horror

So yesterday, I was invited to go see Rocky Horror at Psycho Donuts in San Jose. At first, I was hesitant to go, especially as a "virgin" to seeing it in theaters. But, I had to drop Lauren off and was taking cosplay pictures for her (she was meeting a Homestuck group).  Since I already had to pay for parking that night, I figured, why the heck not, and decided to stay for the movie. We arrived way too early in order to grab dinner at Pizza My Heart down the street and take pictures while there was still some light. Lauren's friend Raz joined us around 5:30 ish and we all chilled outside the Psycho Donuts. But it got really creepy, really quickly. All of a sudden, three guys came up and started chatting us up, which was fine, except that at least two of them were clearly high on something. Lauren and Raz are both gay, so the most attention they got was asking questions about why they were gay, which they were pretty much chill about answering, though they were still just as creeped out by the fact that the three guys wouldn't leave. I on the other hand, answered honestly that I was not. I feel like I should've lied though. Clearly these men were trying to flirt, or something, but none of us were interested at all. At one point, one of the guys (who was still slightly coherent) asked me if I smoked or drank. I answered very honestly that no, I am a Christian and it goes against my morals to do so especially under the age of 21. He being the only one who seemed to understand that none of us were interested, replied, "I respect that, I'll leave you alone now" and walked away. One down, two to go. But these guys would not let up. They were asking about random things like our favorite colors and would we dye our hair crazy colors. I ended up being called "Turquoise" because of this. These guys were suave, certainly in their comments, but still, none of us were interested at all. Finally, more of the cosplayers that Lauren was meeting showed up and we were able to escape the remaining two. We walked inside the Psycho Donuts and stayed there til we knew they had left. Eventually, the whole group walked to a Safeway where I happened to notice that one of the two that wouldn't quit was being escorted out by security. When we made it outside, the security guard was just coming back and commented, "We get tired of being threatened sometimes". And that just made Lauren and I even more wigged out by these guys. It made me happy that I was there with a group of people, cause I honestly don't know what I'd have done had I been by myself.

Back to Rocky though!

After another hour or so, much more people arrived. Including a Brony group! I had been basically dragged along for the most part on this trip and so didn't know anyone in the Homestuck group. And because I don't read Homestuck, I didn't have anything in common with these folks. I did, however, bond with the Bronies. Because I actually follow that fandom, I could relate a bit more to that group. I actually ended up sitting with them instead of the Homestuck group for the movie. Shoutout to Craig who apparently for Fanime goes as Dr. Whooves. In other words, 10th Doctor, but with a cutie mark on his trench coat, and ears and a tail. Best pony. No questions asked. Thanks for being more relatable with an awesome pony doctor shirt!

I hope all you had a less creepy Saturday than I did. Seriously.

With Love,
PolarBearMoose <3

I'm a Nerd

So, I'm gonna make this short guys, cause I have homework and stuffs to do and a lot on my plate.

So today in Philosophy, we talked about Plato's Republic and this question he brought up involving human nature and what-not. Now for those of you that are philosophers, this is gonna make like way more sense to you and you'll probably be a lot more familiar with Plato than I am. So the question posed was this: "If you had a ring that gave you the power to become invisible, what would you do with that power?" Now, to me, that sounds a heck of a lot like Lord of the Rings. Cause I'm a nerd. So we were told to write anonymous responses on a sheet of paper so the professor could read them off. Mine was best. I said,

"One ring to rule them all? Throw it in the fires of Mount Doom! Or give it to Frodo".

Now, I wasn't sure how many other nerds were in the class, so I added a more serious answer afterwards. But mine was the first nerdy one that was read aloud. There was much laughter. It actually made my day super bright. Especially when the group of people sitting behind me kept quoting it and chuckling. Math was even tolerable today because of it! Yep. How I'm judging my days at this point. But yeah, I'm a nerd. An anonymous nerd, but a nerd nonetheless.

On a completely different note: Guess what!!
I just started a 500px account! And it has pictures I've taken! So, I'm gonna add some links in this post, then add the link to my sidebar. But check it folks:
http://500px.com/micaelairene

Yeah, check that out, cause a lot of it you guys won't have seen since it's my portfolio stuff.

And with that, I bid you adieu (so I can go to do that homework and stuff)

With Love,
PolarBearMoose <3

Ren Faire!

I love the Renaissance Faire. I try to go every year. This year was special though. I got the chance to take my cousin, Lauren, for her first time (to this specific one). The NorCalRenFaire is one of my favorite places. Yeah it's hot and dusty, but the people are all so friendly. We met this one guy dresses as a hobbit. Don't know why! But we met him. His name was "Trip Bramblebottom" and we discovered, he has access to facebook from the shire! That's right folks! https://www.facebook.com/TripBramblebottom/timeline Check it out. It's pretty awesome.

Anywho, a bit later, Lauren and I ran into a "gossip rag writer" who was clearly a ren faire employee. We had a chance to tell her about Trip and the fact that he gave us buttons. Legit buttons, for luck of course. She mentioned she thought she had met fair hobbit and received a button as well, but hers was in one of the many pouches she was carrying. I on the other hand was lacking in pouches and so stored mine in what she brilliantly called "God's Pockets". I'll let you try and figure that one out. But indeed, in one of God's Pockets, my button was stored until I bought a pouch to hold both money and the button later. Conveniently, said pouch fits quite nicely between God's Pockets while wearing a corset.

Later, Lauren and I just decided to go to the Outlet Mall since I'd never been there. We didn't buy anything, but we almost did! It was quite amusing. Especially when trying to get there, we got lost. Because SOMEONE *cough* Lauren *cough cough* told me to go right when I needed to go left. Mhm. Never trusting her directions again.

Ooh! I forgot to mention. We decided next year to go as gypsies cause it's a heck of a lot less hot when you have clothes that breathe. So I got a hip scarf and a head piece to wear for next year.

But yeah! That was my day at the Ren Faire! Anyways, I should get going at this point, but I promise to blog again soon!

With Love,
PolarBearMoose <3

Photo Shoot

On Tuesday, I went on a photo shoot with a friend of mine who I met at the college youth group I attend. I didn't know her very well when we went on the shoot, but in the rough hour that we spent together, I learned so much about her. It was actually a very inspiring ad eye-opening experience to go out on a shoot with her. To protect her identity, I will call her Lara. Let me tell you a little bit bout her:

Lara, like me, will be attending college this year as a freshman. Also like me, she has quite a creative side. You see she has a kind of project that she is working on called the "FEARLESS Project". Her goal? To be able to freely express herself through writing, but also to experience life without fear. She believes fear is something created within, that if you don't feed the fire, it cannot continue to exist. She wants to destroy the fire of fear and replace it with memories and experiences. Lara writes about everything. About herself, about earth, about life. She desires to capture each aspect of life and create the world through her work.

The idea for photo shoot came up after youth group one night when we decided to go to someone's house afterward for ice cream. Lara mentioned that she wanted to start writing the word "fearless" under her eye and just walk around with it day to day. She thought it would be an excellent conversation starter and that she could spread the word about her project. When she mentioned this, I asked if I could take pictures of her when she started. I needed to expand my portfolio and this seemed like a very unique and excellent opportunity. She delightfully agreed s all we had to do was decide when to go out and shoot. At first we planned for the same week, but it turned out we both had other plans. Then, the same friend that had us over for ice cream held a tea party. Lara and I both attended and decided that would be a perfect day to go out. So both of us dressed in our favorite sundresses went out and searched for locations have no plan except to go out and take pictures.

 Now I am not the most daring person and I am very shy. Lara on the other hand is completely open and exuberant. She suggested something completely different for our first location. We drove until we found a house that we really liked the front of and asked the owner if we could take pictures in front of their house. This experience took me by surprise because I normally find public locations, being too shy to ask something like this. The owner was shockingly nice. Honestly, I would have thought they would less willing or just stiff about it. However, the man who answered the door talked to us about why we were taking pictures and had a very pleasant conversation about both his house and how he admired the arts. Apparently, the stone work in front of his house had been done by a family who taught each generation the trade passing down their heritage, from I believe Croatia (though I could be mis-remembering exactly where he said the family was from). We took plenty of photos in front of the house. When we were done, we thanked him and left.

We drove around some more until I saw a wooden bridge that I really liked. Actually, the part of the bridge I really liked was on the road so we settled for the wooden walkway. The lighting was beautiful and the background was woodsy and free from distraction. While we were there, a man came walking by with his dog Hobson. Lara asked if we could take pictures with Hobson and so we struck up conversation with Hobson's owner. Apparently, Hobson was a service dog and the owner had trained and raised him. They gave him to someone who needed him, but the guy didn't him for some reason and so after about four months, Hobson retired and came back to the family that had raised him. When we had finished with Hobson, his owner continued walking and we decided we were done at the bridge. We travelled across the street to an office building that had a second floor and used the balcony for another location. We took only a couple photos before continuing to our final location.

As we drove, we were trying to decide where to go until we were about to pass a high school that I had taken a summer class at once. Having been on the campus before, I knew there were a variety of locations we could use. It being a catholic school, there were statues of saints everywhere. We finally decided on a small circle surrounding a statue of St. Francis. The area had trees, grass, and benches that were all perfect for our task. As we took some pictures, Lara noticed a friend of hers and called them over to take a picture with us. They left and we took a couple more photos before finally decided we had enough. We ended our photo shoot, and she gave me a ride to a friends house where I had an art party to attend.

The whole experience brought some very interesting new experiences for me. For example, I would never ever talk to someone walking by or ask about their story, not because I don't want to but because I'm so shy. I am not the kind of person that goes out and asks someone if I can use their house front. Going out with Lara gave me a chance to make once in a lifetime connections with people that I would never have made on my own. Hearing people's stories and being able to connect was such an inspiring thing. I want to be able to do that more often. I want t be that kind of person that can stop a random person and something special about them. Everybody has a unique story. Imagine if everybody took two minutes out of their day to learn something about just one random stranger. Think of how friendly our society would be. And learning something abut someone can be so encouraging. To tell someone, I think your story is interesting and I want to hear more can change someone's entire day. if we all took just a couple minutes everyday, we could do so much good. That's the kind of thing I want to do with my life. But I don't want to create the world through writing like Lara, I want to create it through photography. I want to spend my life taking the things people don't notice and showing how beautiful they are, when others don't notice. I want to show the world from a different perspective.

Anyways, I hope you are inspired by all this as much as I am.

If you want to see pictures from the shoot, I will have some up on my tumblr in just half an hour!
Check the pictures out --> here <--

With Love,
PolarBearMoose <3

Photograpy Captions

Look, I'm no expert, okay? And I'm not a photojournalist, nor will I ever be. I'm not taking pictures for a news story, but my photos do have a story behind them. You can interpret how you will and just ignore what ever I tell you about it, but I'm not going to put a one or two sentence tagline in the "caption" area that doesn't tell you the story. I try and keep it short, but some stories are longer than others. When the story is really long (as in multiple paragraphs), I put it here. My goal is to share the stories I learn and tell you about the little things in life that make a difference. Sure a picture of a dandelion might not be important to you, but if I have a picture of one, it's because there's something unique about why I took it. Sure sometimes I post filler pictures that I took from vacations or something, but I tell you in my captions why I took it. Maybe somebody else's dog may not be important and world famous, but his story could change your day hearing about it. The news and media today does not highlight the good things in life, and while no, I am not a photojournalist, I do want to share why the little things are important too.

To check out some of my photos, go --> here <--

With love,
PolarBearMoose <3