It’s Just Justin

We’re All Going To Die

That’s what the weather casters are saying and the people of Houston and South East Texas are figuring.  Why?  Cause of some measly little storm… (Which I captured with Jing, woot woot)

Yeah, that doesn’t scare me. I’ve been through worse and I’m pretty sure this is just another way that someone is trying to ruin my birthday week. Yes, birthday week cause A) I’m that cool B) Cause I like to party. Tomorrow is when the family is getting together to shower me with their love and adoration and the day I get to break the diet for a chocolate and raspberry truffle cake.

No tropical storm or hurricane can take that away from me!

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Tags: Birthday, Cake, Family, Fun, Houston, Hurricanes, Jing, Meteorology, Mother Nature, Party, Screencast.com, Texas, Tropical Storm Edouard, Weather Phenomena

It’s My Birth Day

Twenty four years ago today my parents’ lives were changed forever.  They finally had the son they had always wanted.

Well, I guess that had happened about a year earlier but this time they had the son they…  Ok, ok, I was just the summer release sequel of the last year’s hit, Patrick.

I think I was a pretty cute kid, of course I’m partial to thinking so.  I think I was born to be a model, now I don’t dare claim to have grown into being a model, sadly, but I sure had the look.

Here I am pretending that I’m bulimic.  No, not really, but it’s anyone’s guess as to what the hell I was doing with my hand.

It is crazy to me that I have changed so much, but clearly, I have always been gay.  I mean, look at that picture, gay gay gay!

Today however, 24 years after birth, I’m headed home to Houston with my mom.  With Ryan in Tennessee and nothing really happening in Columbia, I figured, why not?  Sadly, I kinda ruined a surprise birthday from Micheal, Jenny and Co.  That sucks, if I had known I would not have purchased my return flight and just hung out in Columbia.  However, we are planning to do something when I get back in town and you are all invited!

As of right now we have about seven more hours of driving.  I’m lucky to only have the task of sitting in the car since I’m not insured on this rental car.

I’m hoping to be able to visit my cousins in Rockport Texas who I have seen once in like four years and will miss not seeing Joseph who now lives in Seoul Korea!  Joseph has always been the highlight of visiting Houston.

Well, that’s really it for now I guess, I need to read my blogroll which I am way behind in doing.  Catch you guys later!

Tags: Birthday, Columbia, Family, Fun, Houston, Jenny, Joseph, Micheal, Road Trip, Ryan, Society and Culture, Texas, Travel, Yay

Remember the Alamo

Saturday, after picking up my new iPhone 3G, Ryan, my dad and I met up with my mom at the Valencia Hotel on the Riverwalk.  From the hotel we walked down to the water to get some tapas.  They were tasty and the view was great.  I had not been to the Riverwalk in quite some time.

After the snack we took a stroll down to the Alamo and other similar sites.

We passed my great grandfather’s pharmacy and the old zoo that was indoors, like in a building downtown… how crazy.  If the bears got loose… holy shit!

Tags: Alamo, Family, Fun, History, iPhone, Riverwalk, Ryan, San Antonio, Society and Culture, Texas, Travel, Trip, Vacation

iPhone 3G - It’s Mine

After waiting a day to get the iPhone and avoid the massive lines and over night stays required to get one on the first day, Ryan and I packed up early and headed to San Antonio where we waited in a short line (we were number 22) for the new iPhone.

They told us they had 36 on hand in the store, 5 black 16gb, 10 white 16gb, and the rest black 8gb iPhones.  Of course I wanted a 16gb and of course I wanted it in black.

Unfortunately, or so I thought, the last black 16gb iPhone was sold to the guy in front of me.  However, the white one is’nt so bad after all.  In fact, I like the look o the white one more than the black one so I guess in a way, I lucked out.

We got the phone no problem, I got the black inscipio case and the really nice screen protectors and pulled out my laptop to finish the setup.  We figured we might as well get it all activated before leaving the store, should there be any problems.

I used my Verizon Wireless wifi card to get on the Internet and in no time at all my phone was activated and syncing up my music and applications.

I didn’t have any of the troubles other people were having in the day before and the entire deal went over just perfectly, despite was Chris Pirillo has been incessently blogging.  Direct fulfillment was your own mistake Chris…

Anyways, I digress.  The AT&T people did the best they could and everything went so perfectly and smoothly, not a single hiccup.

So far the new iPhone 3G is everything I was promised.  Great service, great speeds, great built quality and the battery life is working out just fine for me.

No complaints from me so far but if I get anything, I’ll be sure to let you know.

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Tags: Apple, AT&T, Family, Handhelds, iPhone, Just My Nerdiness, News and Media, Ryan, Smartphones, Verizon Wireless

Moonshine and the Oasis

My grandmother and I went to Austin on Friday to pick Ryan up from the airport.  We had a scare as he nearly missed the flight out of Kansas city but he got in on time and with his bags, whew, what a relief.

From the airport we went to Moonshine, a great restaurant in Austin.  We shared a large selection of appetizers from spinach and artichoke fondue to grilled garlic cloves to polenta.  It was all so very tasty.

After lunch we drove to the capitol and around the downtown area before heading out of town, making one more stop at The Oasis on Lake Travis.

It is very hard to capture the immense size of The Oasis in one shot.  It would probably require a few shots with my fish eye lens to accomplish that.

The Oasis is a restaurant on Lake Travis (as you might have surmised from the full name above).  Only a few years ago the place burned down to the ground.  Well the place has been rebuilt and the food improved and the view is every as stunning.  The guy behind it all is a friend of my grandmother’s best friend.  He’s a little tiny itsy bit rich.  Check out his home, it’s that giant one.  It looks like three homes, it’s one.  Just so you know…

But like I said, the views are fabulous.  The only thing possibly close to being as good are the drinks.  Fun and funky margaritas and mixed drinks.

We had a few drinks, took a few pictures and then headed to Horseshoe Bay where my grandparents live.

So it was a great day, amazing food, amazing drinks and beautiful scenery.

Tags: Austin, Beautiful, Drinks, Family, Food, Fun, Horseshoe Bay, Lake Travis, Photography, Ryan, Texas, Travel, Yay

Always Busy

It seems like every week I’m flying out somewhere or otherwise taking a trip out of town.

Texas, Birmingham, Chicago, Kansas City, Saint Louis, San Francisco… This Monday I’m flying out to Raleigh North Carolina and giving a presentation to the North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission and then Ryan will join me in Texas to spend a long weekend with my grandmother and grandfather at their home there outside of Austin.

I am really excited/nervous about the trip to Texas.  This is the first time that I have really integrated a boyfriend in my family life.  I have always wanted to do so with my past boyfriends (namely, only, Landon and Geoffrey) but a mixture of my fear and my family’s obvious distaste for that quelched any chances of something like this.

However, my family seems to just love Ryan, a lot.  I mean, why not?  He’s smart, funny, loving, cute, incredibly diligent, charming and so kind.  He has helped me grow and feel comfortable in my skin.  He is such a light in my life and my family must see that.  He emails back and forth with my grandmother and my parents ask about him everytime we talk on the phone.  How great is that?

So anyways, going to be busy traveling but it will be a lot of fun and let’s be honest, getting out of Columbia is about the best thing one can do in the summer!

Tags: Family, Geoffrey, Kansas City, Landon, Love, North Carolina, Raleigh North Carolina, Ryan, Society and Culture, St. Louis, Travel, Work

Picture Perfect Wedding

Saturday my brother married the most amazing person, Lisa, and now I have a sister.  The wedding was beautiful, the weather perfect and the scenery stunning.  We had a wonderful time in the Texas hill country and seeing old friends and relatives was awesome.

Here are a few pictures I took from the wedding.  I did my best not to take pictures since I was a groomsman, there were two hired professional photographers and my dad’s side of the family is full of professional photographers that were doing their best to catalogue the events.

So here are a few shot for you to enjoy.

Justin Trahan and my brother at the groomsmen’s house.

 

Me taking a self portrait. Not something I do all that often. Love this fish eye.

My awesome cousin Benjamin. I met him for the first time this trip! I cannot wait to visit him and his brother in Denmark, hopefully this summer!

This is my cousin Chloe.  She and her parents are totally addicted to this gourmet cake company company my mother has been using for years.  We have become friends with the owner, Annabelle, who made these awesome cupcakes for the rehearsal dinner.  Can you tell she really loves them?  

Childhood best friend Jena with another great friend from the olden days, we are talking Bellville Elementary to Senior High.  Crazy! 

 

Friend of the Bride Amanda and my belle of the ball, Melissa.  We had so much fun reconnecting over the weekend.  Oh wow, what a wonderful time. 

That’s where the reception was, hanging over Lake Travis and such a beautiful night.  This was taken from the groomsmen house. 

 

 Melissa and I taking a self portrait.

My adorable cousin Eleanor.  She was the flower girl in the wedding, did a great job.

 

Ahhh, the fountain.  We took some great pictures here with the professional photographers.  Once I get a copy I’ll post them up here.

Tags: Amazing, Family, Fun, Lisa, Love, Marriage, Patrick, Photography, Texas, Wedding

Renovation

Dad and I painted the living room today.  We didn’t finish but we got pretty close.  I am going from a dark orange and brown scheme (yick) to a bright white trim with creamy walls.  

     

 

It will be so much brighter in here and I imagine it will make the room seem larger and happier.  That’s the hope at least.

My parents come here and paint, it’s just what they do!

Tags: Family, Paint, Remodel, Yay

New Family Members

So Ryan hasn’t met our new fellas but we now have two more fishees.  We are still working on the names, going for late 80’s-90’s sitcom character names.  Right now we have Mr. Belvedere;

 

The two new guys…

 

We also started a flower and vegetable garden.  We have so many beautiful flowers blooming and vegetables sprouting… oh how much fun.  Right now they are living in our living room but once we get some more reliably good weather, they’ll live on our giant balcony.  Hip hip hooray.

Tags: Family, Fish, Fun, Garden, Ryan, Television

Photography Project

I’m supposed to be working on this big project for my photography class.  The basis of it is experimental lighting to enhance a photograph.  I have done some quick and dirty examples of how doing some simple changes to your lighting and camera setting, you can turn a shitty picture into a great picture.

The first example is using a high aperture (f-22) along with a super bright light (650 watt) to light a scene versus using an automatic setting on a camera such as my Nikon D80.  First the auto setting shot.

All and all, it isn’t such a bad picture.  The problems are getting true whites and true blacks as you can see in the shot coming below.

Obviously better whites and blacks here.  Also, I manually set the white balance as opposed to the camera deciding what was white.

This next set is much more obvious.  I took a picture of my mother’s Aggie class ring on a mirror, a blush compact mirror at that.  With this shot I compared again, a 650 watt tungsten Arri light with the built in flash on my camera.  I again modified the f-stop to 22 on my manual shot.

As you can see, the flash blew out the color of the gold and the lower f-stop picked up all the light hitting the mirror.  It’s a plain old gross picture.  However, let’s see what happens when we set the aperture to f-22, pound the thing with 650 watts of light.

I swear, it’s like magic.  The silver mirror turns to black and the gold, which was previously washed to a pale yellow, is now a deep, rich 14ct gold.  Look at that reflection!  

These pictures are just the foundation of my project, showing how small changes in light can totally change a picture.  I intend to include emotive portraits and many other genres of photography in this series.  Here’s to hoping I can make it happen and make it something special, unique and captivating.

Tags: Aggie, Arri, Class, Family, Light, Macro, Mom, Nikon, Photography, Project, Ring, School, Scraps, Spoon, Strobe