"New Year's Eve Self Portrait"

I was combing my hair and I took some pictures of me. Actually I was paying more attention to my camera than my hair, so I will probably have to comb it again before I go to the MVAC party. I have taken 3100 photos taking up almost 2500 MB of hard disk space (and they are backed up monthly), all on my Kodak DX6440 that I have had since March. Plus there are additional photos on my hard drive from the times I have used my brothers Cannon Elph and from my week long relationship with a Nikon D70 digital SLR. If I take any more photos this year (in the next 2.5 hours) they will probably be taken with the Elph, as I don't like lugging my Kodak around when I am drinking.

I need a haircut, plus I didn't shave today. My bangs curl up in the front, but as long as I can't see them I don't care.

Firefly, The Movie!

I just read on The Life Aquatic website that one of the film's
producers, Barry Mendel, will be producing an upcoming feature film
directed by Joss Whenon called Serenity. I search for that film on
Yahoo! Movies and sure enough, a feature film version of the short
lived sci-fi show Firefly is being turned into a movie, driven at least
partially by DVD sales. All we have to do now us wait until it is
released in 2005 and hope that it does not get canned before it's time
like the TV show.

It took me a few visits to actually find the enter button on The Life
Aquatic site, but I finally got in!

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

I just saw The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou with my friends Ellen and Brian. It's another great film by Wes Anderson. You will probably enjoy it if you liked Rushmore. It's not your typical humor, but it is very funny. Some of the set designs and visual devices are incredible. The cinematography is beautiful. The use of stop motion animation and miniature photography lends to its interesting look. The film within the film, the documentary filmed by Zissou and his crew (at least the snippets that we see) are also cool and lend to this look while parodying some documentaries of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who is mentioned in the credits as having nothing to do with the film. The music in the film is also great, featuring a number of David Bowie songs translated to Portuguese and performed by Seu Jorge who plays a crew member of the Belafonte (Zissou's ship, named presumably for Harry Belafonte, singer of the song Calypso, which was the name of Cousteau's ship). I highly recommend this film. Even if you are still not into it after the first 20 minutes, stick around because I think you will like it as the story develops. It combines the absurd and the retro with great talent and art to make one great film.

I think I will go for halloween next year with a red wool hat and a light blue uniform of some kind. I'd go for the cool wet suit but that might be a little... I don't know, and I'm definitely not going with the Speedo. If anyone asks who I am supposed to be I'll just have to screen the movie for them. I'll have to borrow a fake gun and holster to strap around my leg and maybe get some adidas, but that might be going too far. Anyway, it would beat my getup from this year, which was just a Halloween themed t-shirt.


disaster relief info (I should probably just post this on the side somewhere):
Click here to make a contribution to the Red Cross Disaster Relief fund via Amazon.com or Click here to make a contribution directly to the Red Cross International Response Fund to help those affected by the earthquakes and tsunamis.

What Is Life

Today was a good day for me (with the exception of a slight hangover). Anyway, here is the Red Cross info once again:

Click here to make a contribution to the Red Cross Disaster Relief fund via Amazon.com or Click here to make a contribution directly to the Red Cross International Response Fund to help those affected by the earthquakes and tsunamis.


"Glasseye"

Now Playing: George Harrison, All Things Must Pass

Disaster Relief Contributions

Click here to make a contribution to the Red Cross Disaster Relief fund via Amazon.com or Click here to make a contribution directly to the Red Cross International Response Fund to help those affected by the earthquakes and tsunamis.

New Year's Eve Playlist

Hi Hi Hi - Paul McCartney & Wings
All Night Long - Joe Walsh
Future Blues - Canned Heat
Wild Night - Van Morrison
Changes - David Bowie
Don't Look Back - Boston
Gotta Boggie (The World Boogie) - Canned Heat
Midnight Man - Joe Walsh
The Midnight Special - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Moondance - Van Morrison
Golden Years [Single Version] - David Bowie
All Day And All Of The Night - The Kinks
Same All Over - Canned Heat
After Midnight - Eric Clapton
Goodnight Tonight - Paul McCartney & Wings

{it seems to have a lot from my Halloween and Election Day playlists, with a few things added}

"Spot The Cardinal, Win A Prize!"

"Cup Holder"

Christmas Day

"Christmas Cactus"

{it blossomed in Novermber}

Christmas Eve Boredom

"Yellow Cab Hat and Taxi Sign"

I want to commnce hanging out with people. I'm whats known as buh-buh-buh-bored...

Web hosting

I finally decided to get my own domain and web hosting. The deciding
factors were that Optimum Online has no FTP space or service, my NYIT
space is limited and somewhat temporary, my Earthlink FTP space is soon
to be gone, and seeing Serkan's website with his demo reel yesterday. I
hope I was not too hasty about choosing a service. I went for Yahoo!
Small Business's startup package. It's not too much money. I get a
domain, email addresses and the vital server space among other things.
My account is in the process of being registered so look for my new
website at sakraft.com sometime in the near future.

Calling the cops

"The Verizon 911 Mystery Box"

Our phone lines were damaged in the storm yesterday so the company came to fix them this morning. My mom had to leave but said they were still working outside. Later, the doorbell rang. It took me a moment to get downstairs and when I opened the door there was nobody there but there was a police car parked with no police in it. I stood there a while but nobody came to the door. As I closed it, the back door bell rang. There were two police on the driveway. They said there was a box by the side of our house and that 911 had been dialed from our number, but all they got was static. They said burglars sometimes use boxes hooked up the way that one was to disable alarm systems. One officer called 911 from my house and told them it was phone company equipment. He said to call them if they didn't come back for it but I saw a guy on a ladder on the block over, so they probably had not finished.


"RMP 303 Driving Away"

That photo of the police car was taken through a screen in a window, which accounts for the strange pattern. I wanted a photo of the car in front of my house but I didn't have time to get it.

The Official End Of The Semester

I had my last assisting tonight and now the semester is over. We even had a visit from some former students. I feel so good after going to these classes. Here are some of the people in the class and one former student (not that you can see their faces in this photo but they are left to right: Scott F, Me, the professor, Chris (obscured), Vivian, Nicole, Wael and Serkan. The rest of the class had left already):


"Lab Monkeys"

Now I'm relaxing and watching Ferris Bueler's Day Off, thanks to Mike L for pointing out that it was on. Also courtesy of Mike, this related link: Abe Froeman!

{Random MIDI file}

Prepare To Be Boarded!

"Pirate Smurf"

Click here or here to get your own.

"Reflection in Pot Lid"

{I want to write but I have nothing to write about. It's DVD time}

I Still Got It!

I finished my American History final today before 9 AM. It was easier than American History in High School. My professor also read my paper on Matthew Brady while I was taking the test and he said it was very good. I don't know why they can't have the final the same time they have the class, but I survived waking up at 6 AM for the first time in a long time. I'm done with finals now. I just have to TA one more class tomorrow and then the semester is over. I can't believe how fast it went. I just realized moments ago that I suddenly have tons of free time on my hands. I already have to final grades for 2 of the 5 classes from this semester. I got A's in Art History and Mass Comm, so that's good. I didn't think I was going to do that well in Mass Comm, because it was really boring. Just 1 more undergraduate class and I have my BFA!

NYPD Officer Rosa gets his gun and badge in less than a week!

And now, some photos from August:


"Shadow Portrait No. 1"


"Basement Stairwell"

James Booker Rides Again!

Just for laughs I checked amazon to see if they had James Booker: More Than All The 45s and it was actually in stock! It had not been available for a long time. Now I can hear the New Orleans Piano Wizard play Gonzo without paying $40 for a used Duke and Peacock CD or buying a vinyl single on ebay. You have no idea how happy this makes me.

I found my ABS to be of great use with the recent snowfall, although the car can slide a bit after the wheels have fully stopped. The empty parking lots at school are fun but I don't go to fast as to risk damage to myself or the vehicle, plus I don't want to rouse security. On the roads I find that it is best to go slow enough that I never actually have to use the brakes. As long as I can apply slight power, the all-wheel drive gives excellent grip.

I had to go to NYIT today for a meeting and then went back later for class. I saw a VW beetle (the old kind) and I wanted to post a picture of it but the picture didn't come out great (as I was driving at the time).


"Snowy Wooded Area"

This is the area that NYIT groundspeople cleared of leaves. Maybe they did it so the snow would have a place to go.


"Fallen Tree"


"Asphalt of the Second Parking Lot"


"My Car in the Second Parking Lot"

A cold and slippery walk.


"The Pond Near the NYCOM buildings"

I brought my camera the in the first part of the day to take pictures of the snow covered pond.


"Ed Hall Roof With Snow"

If I were a bit more patient, I would select just the sky in this photo and adjust the levels. The color in the sky that you can't see in this version is magnificent.


"Rasterbation of Van Den Puup"

This is Van Den Puup from the guerilla-advertising website www.elitedesigners.org whom Lawrence and I (and others) believe bears a resemblance to a certain animation professor. I put it up on the wall before class tonight.

A Hazy Shade of Mud

I had just been thinking, is it ever going to snow this winter. It snowed last night and now it is freezing. I am still wearing ankle socks, but I'll give them up when I wear boots later. On the Yahoo weather page for New Hyde Park it says it is 17° and "Feels like: 0°".

Of course, now that the weather is bad people are driving more like animals than they already were. On my way to a final this afternoon some jerk in a Mazda 6 cut me off, spraying muddy slush all over my windshield. My wipers only made it worse because there is snow and ice frozen to them. It looked something like this:


"A Lovely Shade of Mud"

I took that photo after I parked at Tech, so don't be alarmed by the trees. I had my camera with me to take pictures of the snow encrusted areas. It was so cold that I could only stay out a short time. I felt like my toes were going to fall off. Here are some of the photos I took before my Mass Communications In Society final:


"Acanthus Planter With Snow"


"Evergreens"


"Trees Along Road at DeSeversky"


"Small Planter No 1"


"Small Planter No 4"

The final itself was not so great. It was all multiple choice and true/false. Half the stuff on it was not covered in class or on the study sheets. It was a lot like the professor herself and the way she taught; unorganized and vague. I took more photos after the final. Then I tried to go sell back some of my books but the parking lot near the book store was not well cleared


"DeSeversky Wall"


"Cleared Path"

Here is one of my windshield after I got home and the sun hit it:


"Sunlit Windshield"


"Snowy Subie Grill"


"Next Time I'm Wearing Boots"


"Three Pens for Three Finished Classes"

I have two more classes to go. My last video editing class is tonight and my American History final is on Wednesday. I also have to more classes of teaching assisting to do.

私はウォッカを必要とする • 我需要伏特加酒

"Cherry Tomato Gradation" - Taken this summer

Hooray! I finally finished my paper on Mathew Brady, although I'm sure my writing is a little delirious at the end, but that just makes it more interesting.

I have a final monday, another wednesday, class at night on monday, tuesday and thursday. After that, the semester is over! I can finally catch up on my Netflix subscription.

Now that the iMac has OS X, I'm going to hook a digital camera up to it and try taking pictures from my G4 over the network using Image Capture. I love wasting time!

"Yours Truly No.s 2 and 4"

"Yours Truly No 2"


"Yours Truly No 4"

These are both from the night I got the D70 home.

I am bored with a capital B. So I'm Bored. Last week was supposed to be the alcohol free week, what the hell.

The old iMac now has 192 megs or RAM and is running OS X and connected to the cable. It runs much better now. That's what I've been doing instead of my American History paper.

Listening to: The Beatles ~ Rubber Soul ~ Good Day Sunshine

A Pocket Full of Shredded Cheese

"Mickey-Matic"

This was my first camera ever. Its a Kodak 110 Instamatic re-branded as a "Mickey-Matic". I found it recently and I keep it in the closet with some other 110 cameras. I used to have a little spy 110 camera that was no bigger than a 110 cartridge but I don't know what happened to it. I recently got a new spy 110 camera that is basically a shutter and winding mechanism that fits on the cartridge. It is loaded and on my night table right now, but I'm not sure it the film is still good. I have also successfully made and used a pinhole 110 camera, basically a little box with a pinhole and a cover stuck to a cartridge with electrical tape. Here is another article on 110 pinhole cameras. The weird thing is that the big photo lab near me won't develop 110, but the drugstores do. CVS sells generic brand 110, but since 110 is relatively low quality anyway, go for the Kodak.

All this talk about 110 is making me want a Sony Qualia 016, but I don't have $3,200 to spend on a 2 megapixel camera.

Optimum Prime

"Connection Chaos"


"Connection Order"

Thanks mostly to Dave (and NOT the people that write instructions for Optimum Online) the cable modem is up and running. It is a alot faster than DSL, as witnessed by fast uploads of the above photos. I understand that cable speed may depend on how many users are accessing the internet through what ever pool I'm in. In the first picture you see the DSL and cable modems, my new router and my old router. The second photo is how Dave neatly organized everything. The DSL is still hooked up because I want to make sure the cable is doing what it is supposed to before I cancel the DSL. Plus, I still don't have my account info and email address thanks to the tricky setup for the cable.

I also installed more RAM in my Grandfather's iMac, so hopefully I can install OS X on it soon.

And now I have to write my American History paper, which is causing me a high degree of anguish....

No more Art History

Well the final was really hard, I don't think I failed but maybe I won't get the A that I otherwise had for the course. All of the works I didn't study were the ones on the test. I guess it doesn't matter much now :)

I sure am glad that I don't have to take Art History 2!


{Junius Bassius, get out of my head!}

Feelin a little better

I'm feeling better than earlier. I just watched the remake of The Ladykillers with Tom Hanks. It was good and it did not try to exactly follow the original which is also an excellent movie (with a very funny and maniacal Alec Guiness).

I just watch the trailer for The Life Aquatic and it looks pretty good. Once again I caught a little bit of a Kinks song towards the end of the trailer. I believe the song is Starstruck but I may be wrong. I have mixed feelings about Wes Anderson as a writer. Rushmore was great but some of his other movies are just okay. It does have Bill Murray, and from what I have seen in the trailers I think it will be pretty good.

random diversion: Click Here

good grief

Tonight's class had to be the most boring one I ever sat through. Plus
my back started hurting from sitting there for three hours. I tried to
get up and stretch but it was too forgone. I had to leave class early
while we were having a client meeting. I don't feel like studying
tonight which only leaves tomorrow to study before the test at 3 pm.
After that, studying for it won't matter one way or another so I won't
have to worry about it. I still have to finish a paper for wednesday
and study for the finals I have next week. I just feel like sleeping
now.

Complaint Dept., Take A Number

"Cadillac Door and Sail Panel"

I took this photo with the D70. I miss that camera.

I figured out the optimum online does not provide FTP space (someone email me if I am wrong). Is that not a basic internet service offered by many ISPs??? I'll still have my NYIT FTP space for as long as I'm a student or working there (hopefully). I guess having a reliable connection and no FTP space is better than an unreliable ISP with FTP.

I got back from the back doctor (haha) and he told me I have the spine of someone twice my age (my disks are thin). He said my former (still current, actually) knee problems are contributing to greater stress on my back muscles. The combination of my 44 year old spine and strained muscles is what is causing my severe back pain episodes. He gave me a bunch of exercises to do, which I should probably be doing right now along with my knee exercises that I haven't done in months. Instead I'm resizing photos and writing for this blog.

I should also be studying for Art History (don't worry, after Friday I will never say that again).

I will be changing from my Earthlink email address shortly after the optimum arrives and is made to work. I can still be contacted via hotmail although your message may be lost in the 2 billion + junk emails I get there every day. I entered my info for my NYIT address into mail, so if you send a message to skraft@nyit.edu or skraft@mymail.nyit.edu I will probably get it. There are no guarantees that I can reply because I don't know the SMTP server address for the account or what kind of authentication it needs (but I can send mail from that address using Earthlink's SMTP server! Hahahahaha....). If all else fails, leave a message on this blog and I will get it. Probably.....

What a {good} day

I still have not read my art history, but my computer graphics portfolio is completed and submitted. It seemed weird that it was our last class. I probably won't see most of those people again (because we're in different majors) and class ended without ceremony. Its was kind of melancholy. I got out of class much earlier because I only had to submit my disc. Professor Woodburn laughed when I told him we were scheduled for a final exam next week.

I finally picked up the last Slate issue of the semester and four of my photos were published in it. Here they are (two of them have been in this blog already)(they are black and white in the Slate):


"American Trike"


"Autumn on the Athletic Fields"


"Roslyn Viaduct"


"Self Portrait No. 4"

Now I'm a published photographer. I'm hoping to actually be involved with the Slate next semester.

I wonder if there is time to read my Art History before class tonight......

Parting Shots

Here are some of the photos I took yesterday before I had to give the D70 back.


"Ed Hallway Lights"

I always liked these lights in the upstairs hallways of Education Hall.


"Cement Dots"

This one sort of fits in with my sidewalk and cement collection.


"Ed Hall Roof No.1"

I've been seeing a lot of Charles Sheeler's work lately.


"The Wood Cleaners"

Here is another photo from my earth-shattering exposé on the removal of leaves from NYIT's wooded areas.

As I mentioned before, my outdoor photos from the D70 were all off-color because of a white balance setting. I was able to correct this in Photoshop by cranking the yellow-blue slider (in color balance) all the way (or almost all the way) to the yellow side. For the Ed Hall Roof photos I also took out a little magenta.

And now I absolutely and without further delay must read Art History... ...but now the doorbell rang. FedEx finally delivered my Contour Showcase for my iPod. It was poorly packed but luckily its okay, probably because its designed to be okay. I wish they made one just for the thinner 20 gig iPod. Instead the case can accommodate the 40 gig models and comes with a spacer for my 20 gig, but that's extra thickness that I don't need.

"Ed Hall"

I realized today that the reason some of my photos from the D70 were comming out bad was because the white balance was on a funky setting. I think it might have been set under tungsten lighting because its mostly my outdoor photos that have to be corrected. Too bad I have to give it back today.

I'm working in the lab right now. More like "working". Its freezing in here and the computer is giving me grief. I also can't find a way to make MPEG1 renderings of my demo reel that people would actually be able to view without having to install DviX. I was able to upload the photo in the post from the lab, which is good.

RSS is cool, but...

I want to view blogs is RSS form but its being annoying to set up.
First I tried NetNewsWire Lite but my blog did not work with it for
some reason. Then I tried Thunderbird, but all I want it to do is view
RSS feeds. Thunderbird is unwieldy to just do that simply. I accidently
double-clicked one of my subscriptions and it duplicated all of the
posts in a bunch of my subscriptions! How annoying!

I wish I had something else to talk about. I should probably be reading
Art History as usual.

"The Cracks Between The Paving Stones"

I took this in October in PA. I like photographing sidewalk for some reason. The title was inspired by the song The Real Me by The Who.

Blogging, especially photoblogging, is too much fun, I really must sleep now.

Rasterbator

I read this snippet in Popular Science about a website that will turn any photo into a big poster that you can print out on regular paper and put together. It is really neat. It gives you a PDF file with the individual pages that make up the poster. It is called Rasterbator. I made one of me drinking at a Halloween party but I don't think I'm going to print it out because it would take something like 46 pages. If you really want to see the photo I used, click here.

I finally broke down and ordered optimum online. Earthlink was too unreliable for too long and the tech support was too bad ("did you try turning the modem off and on again, well, that's all I know how to do"). I'll have to send out emails and change all my accounts over when I get my new email address. Until then my Earthlink address will still be working for a while and my hotmail address will also be working if you know it.

Ever feel like you wanted your head to implode¿

I was feeling fine all day until I went to my video editing class. Its a boring class and we don't do anything, plus it was 104° as usual in the room. I brought my camera was there hoping Patrick would come and we would just screw around, but Juan told me he wasn't comming. So me and Juan just put our project on to DV tapes and left early. I would have stayed and watched Elf with this group of girls that were working on another project, but it was so hot there and Professor Saslow was getting on my nerves. I went to Tower records when I left school. Usually their stuff is overpriced but I knew The Essential Byrds was cheaper there than elsewhere and I also picked up Foreigner's Complete Greatest Hits and Loud, Fast Ramones for $9.99 each, a very resonable price. I just don't feel right after going to class tonight.

Taking out nature's garbage

I still can not figure out why the grounds-people at NYIT insist on removing all of the leaves from the wooded areas. It is completely absurd. Why can't they just let the environment be? No one is walking through those areas. It does not make it look nice by removing the leaves, in fact, it looks worse. It seems unnatural that there are no leaves under the trees and that there are huge tire tracks in the mud. Knowing NYIT they probably sell the leaves to a compost company or something. Now witness the destruction of beauty:


"Where are the leaves?"

I have to give the Nikon D70 back tomorrow so I have been taking pictures with it today. Here are a couple from the DeSeversky center.


"Acanthus Planter Base"


"Curly Lamp"

Today is the last full day of classes, and what a full day it is (class 9am to 8pm with breaks between). I still have some makeup classes and then finals.