Monday, June 21, 2010

Say Cheese!

"Okay everyone, gather in for a picture!  Ready?  1-2-say cheese!  Great.  Hmm....You know what?  Let's do one more since Susie's eyes were closed.  Ok, here we go...  Good!  Wait...John, stop flipping the bird to the camera.  Now, one more time... "

Ah, the wonders of technology!

Ok, remember back if you can...to the days before we owned digital cameras, or had cameras on our phones.

Yeah, I know.  Those were some sad times!

Who can forget when you actually had to 'pose', or prepare correctly before snapping a photo?  You couldn't do three or four takes because Mom would KILL you for wasting all that film!

Yeah, that's right.  You had to actually BUY film...and it wasn't cheap!

Going to the store and purchasing a 36 exposure roll of film cost you about $6 back in the day, so you better carefully plan out those pictures!

AND, you didn't have the pleasure of seeing the results immediately (unless you were using an old Polaroid instant camera).  You had to just cross your fingers and hope that you didn't have a booger on your face, or weren't victim to really bad lighting!

Oh, the anticipation of waiting for Walgreens to call you up and say that your photos were ready!  Then, you would rush to the store to pay for them, and open them up immediately to take a look!

Of course there were always a few photos of 'nothing,' where your finger was covering the camera lense.

But sometimes there was a nice surprise!  Like, when your sister's friend decided to sneak the camera and take a pic of her boobs!

Oh...that's another thing.  If you had nudity on your camera, the place that was developing the film would usually discard those specific pictures.  CENSORSHIP!!!  Today, we are able to take our own dirty pics and post them all over our phones and the internet if we choose!

(Yes, I admit...there was a part of me that wanted to work in a photo lab so that I could catch everyone's dirty pics as I was developing them.  Hey, we didn't have the internet for our porn back then!)

Speaking of the internet, in today's society we take pictures and then immediately publish them to our facebook and twitter accounts for all of our friends to see as many times as they choose to look at them!  But remember back in the day when you would develop your photos and take them around in an album, forcing your friends to look at them?

We didn't have facebook back then, so generally, people only saw your pictures that one time.

I tell ya...I love my digital camera.  I can't begin to count the number of unflattering pictures I've deleted.

You: "Hey Paul, remember that picture we took standing in front of the statue?  Why didn't you ever post that one?"


Me: "Oh, it didn't come out right."

In all actuality, I just hated the way I looked in it, but you don't need to know that!

Now, if they could just make a camera that does instant photo-shopping.  (who knows...they actually probably already do!) THAT would be a real technological win!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Did you miss me? Danging Carrots turns 1!

Hello friends, bloggers, readers!

First of all, I have to say Thanks to all of you who have left such wonderful comments, emails, and texts after my last blog posting.  When I started this blog last year, I had no idea that it would turn into the beautiful community that it has become.

I know it has been a while since I last posted, and I apologize for that.  I needed to take a little break...a hiatus from the blog to get some other things in order. 

It wasn't that I had no inspiration to write, it's just that I have been in a different mindset.  In a GOOD way!

I also apologize for not updating all of you sooner on the fact that I did find another job.  In fact, I was only out of work for 3 weeks.  I have been at my new place of employment for over a month now.  I was very determined, and I woke up every morning, sent out my resume to MANY, many places, and it paid off!  PHEW!

Other than the job, things are going well for me.  Summer is within our reach!  Beach volleyball starts this week. Kickball starts next week!  Hooray for summer sports!

I just ran the Soldier Field 10 mile race this weekend and had my fastest time ever!

I am currently dating a great guy.  He is one of the most adorable people I have ever laid eyes on.  We're taking it day by day, but I'm having a lot of fun with it.

So yeah...I can't really complain right now.  I am counting my blessings every day, because I know that in a heartbeat it could all be gone.

Which brings me to....

Today is the 1 Year Anniversary of Dangling Carrots!

I can't believe how fast time has flown by. Starting this writing adventure has been a great, therapeutic, wonderful journey.

I went back and read through my posts today, especially my very first posts where I was happy to get a single comment!  Or, to have my page count reach 20-30 reads per day.

Thank you for letting me share my ridiculous opinions, thoughts and even some personal moments with you all. 

AND...thank you for letting me take some time off.  I will update more frequently because I feel like I have been away from friends. 

YOU'RE THE BEST!

Paul