July 2011 | Page 5 of 6 | Kate's Point of View

Free Music – Who Doesn’t Love That?

On July 10, 2011

I recently joined a music club with a bunch of friends where you create a playlist that you share with friends. People go check out the songs and it’s a way to discover new music. (8Track allows you to do this and iTunes will also let you upload playlists.) We’re lucky that we have Delicious keeping our little group of people on task to make sure we pull together playlists each month. I’m even luckier because I’ve found two great resources for free music.

A while back Rage Against the Minivan featured a link to Downplayer and it’s been wonderful! I check it out Monday thru Friday for 10 free tracks. And, before you go jumping to conclusions, yes, it is totally legal. Downplayer just links out to other sites featuring free music. Often the sites they link to are the music artists’ sites.

Another site I’ve recently visiting is Radio Amp 97.1. They feature one free song to download each day.

Between these two sites I’ve expanded my music collection a ton but also gotten introduced to some great new artists and fabulous songs. Case in point: King of Diamonds by Motopony.

Coping With Heat

By Kate

On July 9, 2011

In animals

I don’t want to be a whiner and complain too much about the heat. But the sweat! I’ve been making do okay and enjoy every opportunity I get to lie still and let any breeze and all cool me off. I don’t have any pictures, but Biggie does a pretty good illustration of how I cope:

It’s not the greatest picture, but you get the idea.

Kicking or Gaining a Habit in 30 Days

By Kate

On July 8, 2011

In uncategorized

In a very short talk on TedX Matt Cutts talks about creating mini challenges for yourself. As he presents it, 30 days is just long enough to break yourself of a habit or to incorporate a new one into your life. Following in the footsteps of Morgan Spurlock, who created and hosted the short-running series 30 Days, Cutts challenged himself to write a book in 30 days, take up hiking in 30 days and quit sugar in 30 days.

I’m curious how this would work for me. Growing up I often gave up something for Lent for 40 days and I don’t think any of those things stuck as permanent. But then my goal was never to change my behavior, just to make it through 40 days.

I think I am going to give this a shot. Among my 30 days goals are blogging (I’ve gotten close), taking pictures (I aimed for 365 days and quickly fell flat) and working out (the yogurt helps tremendously).

What would you be willing to attempt to do, or not do, for 30 days?

Scary Cats

By Kate

On July 7, 2011

In animals, classes, photography

At my photography class on Wednesday I sat next to a woman who saw me scrolling through pictures on my camera. There were photos I took at the animal rescue / clinic at which I volunteer so all images of cats. She asked me how many cats I had. I explained that not all of the cats in the photos were mine and that I had two (The Notorious B.I.G. and Addy). I then went to show her the funniest picture I took.

I am not making this up. She completely freaked out and covered her eyes saying she was scared of cats. Then she got up and moved her seat to the other side of the room. There were like 8 students in class so it was pretty noticeable. Cat hater.

I understand that cats can look creepy sometimes.

But those same cats can also be super cute.

Even Mr. Tongue has his handsome moments.

And a lot of cats are so much more scared of people than we can ever be of them. I was able to snap some good pictures of Wesley only because I poked my camera behind a shelf and luck struck.

Photography

By Kate

On July 6, 2011

In 100 List, classes, photography

I am loving my photography classes and very proud that my 100 List helped motivate me to take them. Each session we focus on something new and I always learn some new fact or skill. Last class we focused on metering. The teacher said this is a powerful tool. I think I need to play with it some more because in my hands it was a useless tool.

This week we learned about depth of field. I loved this because it’s something I play with anyway. I love taking pictures as up close as I can get. My zoom lens helps sometimes but mainly I just get all up some peoples’ and animals’ business. That’s what makes flowers so easy. They just sit there cooperatively.

I also continued my ironic streak of bug photos but it’s not quite as good as the others. The point of focus is about ½ and inch to the right of the critter. But now, thanks to my class, I can articulate what could be improved on the image.

My teacher would say that this spider photo is très boring because I have him centered. I get his point (now, thanks to the classes) but still like the picture.