Building a life from 3 ply paper

I have been working on my grand scheme lately and arrived at a decision.  That decision is to probably do the rest of my time at ABtech (Asheville Buncombe technical college) and then go to WCU (Western Carolina university) and finish my last 2 years for a bachelors in photography!  The whole time I'll be at Western I want to not only focus on photography but also Japanese because my "grand scheme" is to go be a JET in Japan (Japanese Exchange Teacher).  So I have to figure out if I could learn more Japanese at WCU by finishing my 2 years at ABtech or not finishing there and then using the credits I still need for Japanese courses.  I have to stop by Western at some point, just gotta find the time =/.  I have been trying to figure out where in Japan I'd like to teach and there are too many places haha.  Fukuoka, Tokyo, my beloved Nagano or maybe some place like Hokkaido.  Pick up snowboarding or something if I was in Hokkaido.

I'm still trying to work on my career as a photographer and most recently a wedding photographer.  Almost finished editing all the pictures I shot from my last and first wedding ever shot!  That's great news cause I really dislike editing... If I could choose I would have an editor and I would just shoot the pics and let him/her deal with editing it.  Takes too much of my time to deal with tweaking pictures, the art in photography is of capturing the moment not changing it after the fact.

School so far has been challenging and fun, I've been making some solid B's in two of my classes and A's in my design class which has been nice.  Surprisingly though the only class where I didn't turn something in on time where I had been previously doing excellent was design 2... I hated the project I had been/still am working on and it was due last monday =(.  It's my inner artist procrastinator saying "You don't need to do that right now! go play video games and eventually everything will work out the way you want!" but alas my lack of a project wasn't forgotten by my teacher so, there goes my hopes of an A on that one.  It's otherwise been a fun class that has bent my brain in numerous ways, I am now a master of creating boxes, spheres, tetrahedrons, icosahedrons, octahedrons... pretty much any sort of "hedron" you want just name it!  I'm ready to build my future house out of 3 ply paper like the rest of my projects have been lol.

My first wedding "_"

Shot my first wedding today... it's some serious stuff lol.  I was lucky because I got to start off shooting a friends wedding but I wasn't quite aware of how much running I'd be doing.  I couldn't figure out who was more stressed out, me, the bride or the brides mom.  I shot around 600 or 700 shots at the event which started for me at 2:00 and I got to leave at 8:00.  I arrived at 2 with the bride to get all those great shots of her getting her hair done although those shots are the least attractive ones of a bride who is stressed about the upcoming life changing event.  I found shooting the groom, groomsmen and brides maids the most fun although it seems women in general become more stressed than men when concerned with weddings.  Shooting the groom and groomsmen was what made it fun and less stressful, they are stress free just having a good time helping each other with their ties and such, CAUSE IT'S A WEDDING and that's what they are for... good times.  The location that the ceremony was held was on the east side of a large mountain which meant no romantic sunset = /, It also meant bad lighting for me when it became dusk.  I found that I was more prepared for poor lighting than I had though but even so when the sun went down everything became very orange and yucky = ( from the incandescent light reflecting off of the yellowish wooden ceiling.

I think I came out with some decent shots but, truthfully, I haven't even looked through all the images yet, too much school stuff to do that right now.  Gotta get some sleep tonight for a psych test tomorrow, my second of 4... or 5 tests... To bed now!!!

Wake up to a new world

Everyday I wake up and think about Japan hundreds of times a day. Most of the time I just think about all the fun times I've had and what might be possible concerning Japan and myself in the future. Of late I have felt more focused upon going to school so that I may one day reach Japan with a degree that I'm proud of and be able to teach future Japanese youth. This has been my goal for a long time but I haven't always had the inspiration to accomplish these things. 

I made a new Japanese friend over the internet within the last few days and she inspires me because she tries very hard to learn English. She wants to come and study at a university in the United States and I want to go and study at a university in Japan. I started watching a Japanese TV show called "My Boss My Hero" the other day and, although it sounds silly, I feel more inspired by watching Japanese television shows. I don't know what about Japan I like so much but Japanese television has it lol.

I want to teach Japanese youth about all the things that I see from my perspective, not just from MY perspective but from a perspective outside of Japan, and not just show Japanese but all people a more worldly way of seeing. I wish everyone had a little more worldly way of seeing because it would open our world up to a peace and understanding that's not even fathomable. Ignorance is the downfall of our world's people. 

I am normally someone who acts like he knows everything but it's just an unconscious front I use to cover my lack of knowledge, I feel like I should know more. I am just beginning to learn about all the amazing things all over the world and I'm humbled by them. For a long time I haven't had my eyes upon what the world truly offers to us all. I now see the potential of it all.