I just really want need a new phone.

The only negative about this app is that you can’t write captions on the pictures like the good ol’ days, you have to open them up in Photoshop (read: resource hog), and do that yourself. Oh well.

Here are the polaroids I created, starting with the clear favorite of my Macro shots:

And here are some macro shots I was hiding from you guys…

And some of my favorite shots from various events…

Now, go make polaroids! SHAKE IT!!

So when I discovered that my digital camera (for you curious folk: Canon PowerShot SD1000) has a Macro setting (isn’t that handy, I can take macro shots just by pressing a button!), I put it to work.

I was sitting in my room. Crap lighting, and nothing terribly interesting to shoot. But then I realized: half the time, macro pictures aren’t exactly interesting things, just really really zoomed in!

So I thought I’d share with you guys the shots I took. With just a touch of Photoshop (Increase saturation, increase contrast), these pics are almost good. Imagine what I could accomplish if I put my mind to it and actually cared about the way these pictures turned out!

Chapstick barcode against miscellaneous desk items.

The jeans I was wearing.

When I bent my leg, and fold that was almost interesting appeared! So I took a picture!

This is my personal favorite. Mostly because it’s my favorite keyboard ever.

Isn’t that awesome? With the right settings, you can be a photographer too, no matter how inept you are at handling a camera!

I want to see your favorite macro shots, whether they’re a masterful work of art or a closeup on the barcode on a tube of chapstick.

So my prize is I get to pick any threadless tee that I want. Woohoo! Only, I kinda had some trouble picking out a threadless tee that was bitchin’ enough for the T-shirt Junkie (that’s me) to wear.

So here are my top six. Please, please pick one and let me know via comment down below, and if you have another threadless fav don’t hesitate to put some linkages.

Ah Munna Eat Choo!

In Case of Zombies

Interpretive Dance

Nuts

Stop Destroying Our Planet

The Morning After

I’m leaning towards In Case of Zombies, Stop Destroying Our Planet, and Interpretive Dance. Because I’ve been known to break out in interpretive dance, I do indeed keep all my stuff on this planet, and you can never be too careful when it comes to zombies. You might even know one!

The voting is closed! Thanks so much everyone for all of your votes, I’m going to go with “Stop Destroying Out Planet”, the clear winner! Thanks again!

Podcamp AZ?

This is probably the most important issue here. I’ve known for a while that I couldn’t go to Podcamp AZ in Tempe, Arizona, October 31-November 2. The reason? I couldn’t afford it. Or at least, that’s what I was telling myself. I sorta guessed at how much it would cost me to fly out for the weekend, and came up with a ridiculously high number that I could never, ever come up with. Then, skip to a couple of days ago. I got curious and looked up flight prices for a round trip from here to there. Only $134. I could most definitely afford that! I could also come up with another hundred or two for a place to stay, and cab fare, and food for the weekend. It was most definitely do-able.

And then when I told my parents that I could afford to go, they told me flat out that I couldn’t. I’m too young, and I don’t have official ID (no driver’s license, etc.) so it would be a huge hassle. Whatevs. I guess I’m (still) not going to Podcamp.

T-shirts and winnings

I won a Gary Vaynerchuk wristband, as you already know. That hasn’t come in the mail yet, probably because Gary is too busy to get that together. Oh well. Eventually, I guess. Also, my e-bff Rachel was streaming a couple of days ago and was giving away eatsleeptweet tees. All we had to do was play hangman with her. Pf! I know Rachel too well, I got the answer right away. Hehe. So whenever Rachel gets her shit together (just kidding!), I’ll get the tee I picked out in the mail. Also, she stole my ustream.tv stickers that we got at NME. Okay, she didn’t actually steal them, I forgot I had them and left them in her bag. Same dif.

Also, my Miiitch t-shirts were delivered! I heart Zazzle, they UPS’d them to me a full business day before I was expecting them. I paid for 4-10 business day delivery, got them in 3 business days! I was so excited. Here’s the video… I apologize for the crap sound. I was kinda yelling. I’ve discovered that the mic on my computer is kinda teh suckages (read: total fail), and if I get too close it fails to the max… but I need to get close so that my face fills up the screen. Because that’s what awesome people do. It’s a dilemma. I’m working on it.

It’s that time again

I know the design for this site is awesome. I know. And I like it, too. But it’s not mine. It’s a free theme from Smashing Magazine, with just a few customizations thrown in (like the kid up top, there. He’s not a natural blonde!). I really just want a theme that I designed myself that I can be really proud of, you know? So for the next few weeks I’ll be brainstorming and sketching and photoshop-ing to come up with a design that’s all me but still just as kickass as this one. It would also be nice if my blog design matched my logo and the colors of my viddler player. At the moment, it just doesn’t.

And lastly

I found out today that as a Mac user, I’m more likely than other people to buy organic food, drive a hybrid vehicle, drink Starbucks, care about the environment, etc.. These all seem like damn good things to me, so rock on Apple! Also, I’m apparently more likely to think that I’m better than everyone else in the world. But I don’t have to use a Mac to know that*.

* I don’t actually mean that.

I absolutely can’t wait for that to show up in the mail!

Next. I got paid yesterday! My current savings now sit at ~$190, which is good because the new iPod Touch (which I want) is only $40 more. I might be able to sway my parents into loaning me the last $40 (because I can’t wait until my next paycheck, that’s like a week away!), but I dunno if that’s going to happen. But either way, my thinking is that by Saturday, 20th of September, I shall have my very own iPod Touch.

Also, my birthday is coming up. Only a little over a month (31 days!)!!!!!!!! I’m thinking if most of my family gives me straight up cash, I’ll get a pretty good head-start in saving up for a Macbook Pro, which I’m hoping is renewed and redesigned soon-ish.

And finally, Blogworld Expo is here in Vegas next weekend. I’m not actually going to the event, but I’m thinking about swinging by the convention center to see MostlyLisa, who said she might be able to hook me up with a men’s t-shirt (because the one on my wall is a woman’s, and I want to actually wear it). I might also find out what’s going on at Blogworld outside of the convention center (because I just can’t afford the $100 entry fee), and so I might still be able to hang out with some people. Woo!

Design Upgrade, Without Sacrifice

When Apple created the Macbook Air, they sacrificed a bunch of stuff so that it could be the super thin, and super light. This shouldn’t be a problem for people, because they should be paying for a thin, super-portable notebook, not a notebook that is packed with features. In fact, nobody should complain about the limitations on a Macbook Air. A lot of people are saying that if the design of the Macbook Pro is updated, it will model after the Macbook Air design, something I’m not totally against. My only real request for Apple is this: Don’t mess it up. Go ahead and make the Pro look like the Air (it certainly is a beautiful machine), but don’t you dare remove any ports or drives. People buy the Macbook Pro for it’s power - it certainly isn’t the cheapest laptop out there starting at ~$2,000 - and if they wanted a notebook with less capabilities they would go with the Macbook or the Macbook Air.

I’m very fine if the Macbook Pro receives a design upgrade - I’m actually not terribly fond of it’s blocky casing right now - but don’t take anything away from the computer for aesthetics.

Pull an Apple!

Apple is known for reducing the price of its products (iPhone, anyone?), and I definitely wouldn’t say no to a price drop with a new Macbook Pro. Even a couple hundred dollars reduction would make it more affordable. I said in my last post that the only reason I can’t have a Macbook Pro is because I can’t afford it, and that’s because I can’t stomach a ~$2,000+ price tag, if you want any upgrades at all. If they were to drop the price down even a little bit, I certainly wouldn’t be complaining, and it would make it that much easier for me to save up enough to buy one for myself.

A thought

I had a thought. When Apple introduced the new aluminum iMacs for the first time, they got rid of some of the desktop line. Would they do the same with the notebook line? I can almost see Apple stopping production of the Macbook, focusing only on the Air and the Pro. But then again, I assume that the Macbook accounts for a fair chunk of Apple’s notebook sales, seeing as it’s perfect for the people who want more power than the Air, but don’t need as much as (or can’t afford) the Pro. Unfortunately, I’ve come to the decision to not settle for less, and will not settle for a Macbook when a Macbook Pro is what I really want.

What are your thoughts?

1. Portability: If I have a laptop, I can bring it to things like New Media Expo–and not feel like the only douche without a laptop!
2. It’s pretty. Duh.
3. School: I’m in my final year of High School (thank god), and that means I’ll be in University soon. Personally, I’ve taken enough notes by hand throughout my school years already; A laptop would be amazing to have to take notes, as well as in whatever my major will end up being (probably Graphic Design).
4. Inspiration: The most effective way to inspire me is to change the scenery–walk away from my desk, out of my room. Going in the backyard, or even downstairs on the couch and watching TV is an easy way to get the creative juices pumping. It would be a lot easier to tap into that creativity with Photoshop right in front of me, as opposed to upstairs in my room, which has become the non-creative zone.
5. If I had a laptop, I could stream (live!) from anywhere in the house, not just my desk. If I didn’t have to be at my desk to stream, I could stream more often! Which is ultimately something I want to do, so…
6. Mucho Power: This kind of goes along with #5: If I’m streaming (Firefox), browsing and listening to music via Pandora (Safari), and have my usual array of apps running (Mail, NewsFire, Skitch, iChat)… and I want to, say, open Photoshop or some other intense program, my computer gets all kinds of slow. If I can use the laptop to stream and either the laptop or desktop to browse and the desktop to design (wow, that sounds like a run-on sentence), I won’t have so much crap going on at once, and Photoshop will be less of a pain to use. I personally love Photoshop. A lot. But it’s a pain when you can’t apply a filter without a five-minute wait for it to render.

Why I can’t get a Macbook Pro:

1. I can’t afford it. $2,000 for the cheapest model (which I’m actually pretty OK with, 15″ is great for me) is a bit out of my budget. Seeing as my current monetary compensations rests at a big, fat $0, it might be a while. Although I did just make a bit of money, and I’m getting paid soon for another job (portfolio coming soon!), that money is already pre-spent. I need a new phone, and the LG Dare is oh-so-nice. There goes that $200. 

Oh, wait. So the only reason I can’t get a Macbook Pro is because I can’t afford it. That’s the only thing holding me back? Seriously?

Ugh. Of course, even if I did have the money right now, I wouldn’t spent it. As everyone can probably guess, I’m waiting for September anyways, just in case Apple decides to pull, well… if Apple decides to pull an Apple (which they’ve been known to do) and upgrades the laptop lineup and make it even more awesome.

My personal hopes for a new lineup of laptops? Don’t really have any. Maybe a few modifications to the Macbook Pro, to make it a wee bit prettier (but please, don’t make it look like the AIR), and a bit more power is always welcome. Also, a major price drop (which Apple is also known for) would be awesome-tacular.

I just recently created a new AIM, and someone added me, and struck up conversation, like so:

Bold: Other person, Italic: Me.

Are you going to die?

Why would I die?

tlel me who this is and waht you said even mneas?

Wtf are you talking about

who the hlel are you?

I’m Miiitch

Who the hell are you?

mitch

i d’ont konw aonnye neamd mitch

Right.

you got the wrnog preosn

You’re the one who started talking to me.

wtf?

wehn

“AIM IM with **********.
11:22 PM
Are you going to die?”

wtf

hlod up

that isnt in any of my AIM logs

that was semnooe else ddue

I got that message from ************ [username hidden, just to be nice].

I’m assuming that’s you.

wtf

im not sawnryrcotut

i didn’t say sawnryrcotut.

yaeh you jsut did

and selpl creoctlry

I said ************.

weehavtr im not taht person

Okay

Well

Whatever

It was nice talking to you, then.

how cnat you tlel im not him

and frnaeikg selpl cetlorcy

*cctrerloy

Are you dyslexic?

no

but tkianlg is not a word

I didn’t say tkianlg, I said talking

thats siltl not how you slpel it

T-A-L-K-I-N-G

is how it’s spelt.

yo’lul find tehre is a dieefcfrne beweten tinklag and tikalng

Do you even realize what you just said?

“yo’lul find tehre is a dieefcfrne beweten tinklag and tikalng”

wtf

three is no i in what i wrote

whree the hlel are you form and how old are you?

Why does that matter?

cause you spell lkie you are 5

Properly?

peolprry?

P-R-O-P-E-R-L-Y

augh wavhteer

Yeah, I definitely see where Pasquale is coming from. That was amazingly aggravating.

And then I got home, and pinned up the Mostly Lisa shirt I got:

Now all I need is an iJustine shirt. Hint hint, Justine. It will go up on my wall as soon as I get it. Also, a viddler shirt would be cool. And a twitter one. They’d fill up my wall.

Check out the blog posts about NME by iJustine, MostlyLisa, and Brandice. I’m sure there are more out there… I’m just a little too lazy to go find them.