I am now a college graduate!

Thursday was the last day of classes and I spend Friday cleaning up and getting rid of some papers. I actually keep all of my graded work, because I’m a dork and organize it according to class and semester in my filing cabinet.

Thursday morning was my AMH2020 (US history 2) final. I was actually sort of excited about it because I got to answer an essay question on “The Lost Generation,” which includes some of my favorite authors (Hemingway, Fitzgerald). Anyway, I’m sitting in the class room before the test begins, going over my notes, when the girl who sits in front of my comes in. Now I don’t think she’s said a word to me the whole semester, but today she wants to talk, actually, she wants me to talk. First she says, “what’s ‘buying on margin’?” So I tell her. Then, “what’s the Schiefflin Plan?” and I say, “I don’t know,” even though I did because I could see where this was going. Then she says, “What about laissez faire economics?” Now I’ve had it, is she going to ask me about every single term on the study guide? So I say, “You know, I’m trying study for myself here,” and give her an ‘what are you, an alien?’ look.

The nerve of some people!

Now onto University! (hopefully). Still no word from UF, but I did get accepted to USF and it seems more appealing every minute.

In other news, here’s a pic of another new (old) toy I got. I had to replace all of the seals in it as well, but now it and the AE-1 are loaded and ready. There seems to be dust or lint trapped under the focus screen though, and I can see it through the viewfinder, really annoying.

For a while I’ve been wanting an older manual focus SLR, a Minolta more specifically. So a couple Saturdays ago my mom and I went downtown to an antique store, I wanted to look for a camera and she had just never been to an antique store before (weird I know).

They actually did have a Minolta SLR, but it wasn’t the model I wanted the most and they were asking way too much for it. They also had a Canon SLR, an AE-1, but they wanted $174 for it! Later my mom says, “You know your dad has an old camera like that, a Canon, I think it’s in my bedroom.” Um, okay.

She gets it out and yeah, it’s an AE-1. I actually remember playing with it when I was little, come to think of it. I’ve been interested in photography for as long as I can remember, I even read books on photography in elementary school (I still am quite strange, thank you).

The best thing though it that the camera still had an old roll of film in it, which I’m going to pick up now.

Yes, it’s true, the rumors many have attempted to squash have turned out to be fact. But do we care? The masses already use YouTube, but I guess that’s a different group the the majority of flickr users. YouTubers probably still use photobucket or something. I’m sure many flickr users will put it to good use, I just won’t be one of them.

I don’t record many videos anyway, but occasionally I record one via my point and shoot and upload it on Vimeo, which was created for just that. I like vimeo, I like that it’s not what everyone is using, that’s it’s not overridden with commercials and movie clips. I like that it still feels homegrown in many ways that the people that created it really care about it and use it (not to say that those behind flickr don’t). Oh and I love that it’s not owned by yahoo.

How about you? Do you make videos and put them online?

For more info on Flickr video see their faq.

The buzz on the web today is all about Photoshop Express, Adobe’s new and completely free online version of Photoshop. Don’t get too excited, it’s far from the real deal, but it does let you crop, sharpen, remove red-eye, and add basic effects to your photos, things the average, everyday digicam user wants yet can’t justify paying for Photoshop to have.

I’ve actually been using the site Picnik, for simple editing and touch-ups like this for some time. I do have Photoshop on my desktop computer, but Picnik is great for simple, quick editing when I don’t want to wait for Photoshop to load, and it can be used on any computer with the internet. While there are other sites out there as well, I don’t think any has been on the same level as Picnik as of yet. Photoshop Express might be able to beat it, but not as it is now.

Right now, Photoshop Express lacks several things that Picnik has, like the ability to add text or shapes to photos for example, and I’m very surprised that I’m not finding a “resize” function anywhere, that’s one of the main things that I use Picnik for. Photoshop Express also lacks Flickr integration, it has Picasa, Facebook, and Photobucket, but no Flickr, supposedly it’s coming. Picnik has those plus Flickr, Myspace, and Webshots, it also allows you to get a photo from your webcam directly or from a website. Photoshop Express does however, have some things Picnik does not, like photo storage and galleries. That may make the difference for some users, but not for me, that’s what I use Flickr for. Oh and Picnik not only has Flickr integrated, but is integrated into Flickr itself, check out those buttons above your photos.

I’ll still check it out, and will continue to do so, as I know it will change a lot from it’s current “beta,” but Photoshop Express is going to have to kick it up a notch before they can steal me away from Picnik.

Oh and if I see one more post about Muxtape, I’m going to scream! That’s right, no link, I will not succumb to it’s plea for the attention of the masses, you (and you, and you, and you, and you) have already done that enough for all of us. And it doesn’t even work in my browser, just so you know.