A lot has been happening in my life, but I often find myself with little to say. On a day-to-day basis, there are so many things that strike my interest and give me the urge to write, but I never seem to make it happen.

In an effort to get back into blogging-shape, here's a photo recap of the past few weeks.

At the end of April, Dan and I ventured to Philadelphia -- specifically, St. Joe's University -- to shoot some photos/videos of K.Flay. I'm really happy with the results -- with the D60, I could expect maybe 30 decent shots out of 200. With the D90, I think I hit around 60. Better lenses help too, of course.

Backtracking a little more... in early April, I photo-documented the Howling Woods Farm clean-up day. I'm so grateful I had the opportunity to spend the day photographing these animals up close. I've only been around them a few times since I started volunteering, but I'm already so attached to each of them.

The last thing I wanted to mention was our trip to the Museum of Natural History. My last visit was years ago, so it was definitely worth going back. The halls of taxidermied animals proved to be just as depressing as I remembered. After all, we went to the museum in lieu of the zoo -- so dead animals don't really do it for me.

Luckily, the dinosaur exhibits put me in good spirits. The above photo is a dinosaur that was illustrated in one of my childhood books. Not the species, but that exact dinosaur. This particular specimen is important because the indentation of its skin and flesh was preserved as it fossilized -- something rarely found in most fossils. I immediately recognized this awkwardly contorted duck-bill from my book, which made me ooze with sentimentality for the rest of the day.

---

Other little things: I'm still working on choosing a new video card/power supply, and Rob has agreed to buy me a new monitor as a birthday gift. I also recently acquired the Droid Incredible. I guess I'm enhancing my technological presence in the world. So there's that.

I'll also be buying a new car soon. And by "new" I mean "pre-owned" and by "pre-owned" I mean something with under 40K miles on it. I'm aiming towards a Scion xA. My old car will be passed along to my sister, since my parent's paid for it. Well, technically my Nana left money and that's what we spent it on, but yea, it's not really my car.

In other grown-up news, I'm working on moving into a single-family house somewhere a little north of my current location. A big, enclosed yard would be really sweet -- especially when I want to BBQ and play with Dex outside.

To increase my dork-dom, I purchased a bike attachment so that I can more efficiently "bikejore" with Dexter. Or should I say, more safely "bikejore" with Dexter. I also found a reputable Siberian Husky breeder that may just supply me with my next dog; she's planning an agouti litter in about six months. We'll see where that goes. I rather rescue a puppy, but I might settle on buying one. I would like the opportunity to pick out my dream dog -- and agoutis are rarely in shelters. They're from racing lines, too. Fingers are crossed, but first things first, need a new place to live.

I think that covers everything. Of course there's a lot more on my agenda -- volunteer work, Jagazine, my comic/T-shirt series for Alejandro ... but I suppose I'll cover that when I get to it.

Life Feels So Simple

I've been neglecting his blog lately, but I think the holiday season is a fair excuse. First, let's pick up where I left off.

On December 8th, Dan and I traveled up to Dudley, MA to photograph and record an MC Lars/K.Flay show at Nichols College. The drive up was relatively peaceful, aside from some NYC traffic. We jammed to lots of nerdy hip hop, Weird Al, and Christmas music the whole way up. We got to the show early and were treated like important people. We were supplied with passes to go backstage and the Lars dressing room, where we were able to snag some grub.

Shooting the show was honestly my favorite photography experience thus far (the Cudzoo show coming in second). I was able to move freely on and around the stage, which really helped my photos. They're not perfect, I would've liked less grain -- but that won't get better until I upgrade to a D90 with its higher ISO. Other than that, though, these were my favorite show photos taken to date. It was a relatively short set, and the excitement made the whole thing fly by, but I soaked up every second of it.

After their set, we relaxed and watched the headliner, Pitbull, perform. There was more pelvic energy in that gym than I could handle, at that point.

We were able to stay at the hotel with Lars, Flay and the gang (Thank you, Mike). Driving four hours back to Jersey wasn't an option. We stayed up late, giggling about silly things and telling secrets. The next morning we struggled to consciousness under a blanket of fresh snow, ate at a Friendly's, and parted ways. It was definitely an experience I won't soon forget, and hope to repeat again.

Since then, life's been trucking along, business as usual. Dan and I go to work everyday, do the damn thing, then come home. I've eaten an immeasurable amount of chili, drank a bunch of beer, watched a lot of UFC and other silly shows. I've hung out with some friends quite a bit, others hopefully more now that it's winter break.

Last night was my sixth annual X-mas Eve Eve party. I can't believe I've been having this thing for six years... time sure does fly. It makes me so happy to see everybody, and as always, the gag gifts were a hit. Tom got a lot of great photos of the gift opening ceremony. I didn't take too many, but we captured the night on HD video a la Dan, so that should be entertaining.

I definitely love the holidays. I'm so cheap when it comes to most things, but I'll spend a good amount of money to give gifts and host my party. As cheesy as it sounds, giving really is much more rewarding than any gift I've received. (But my Nikon is a close second, gotta admit!)

As 2009 draws to a close, I'm happy to say I'm in a really good point in my life. Despite the day to day redundancy and setbacks, I think I'm happier than I've ever been. I hope 2010 brings more of that feeling.