The One That Reminds You to Keep Going

I ran across this little video this morning. It is just typography clips that go with a small excerpt of a speech by Ira Glass, who is an amazing NPR personality. I guess it really spoke to me because I have been trying to figure out where to go with my music right now, and last week I kind of decided to go nowhere. I have been in a holding pattern. What I have been making isn’t current enough for my music partner, lucrative enough for my time, or as good as I know I can do... and so I realized it was time to stop trying, because I am too frustrated with me vs. everything. This little message by Ira Glass makes me rethink that somewhat. It kind of came out of nowhere. Does this speak to anyone but me?

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

The One With the Love Challenge

I was looking through my photos trying to pick one to enter in the “Rock the Shot” February challenge, which is LOVE. I found a lot of photos that I really loved, but this one just jumped out at me because I love the exuberance with which Alex loves Christina. I didn’t use any Photoshop actions on this one. The only processing I used was to apply a texture. I thought about just leaving it alone, but when I applied the texture I loved the way it took away the white space in the upper half of the photo and just focused all the attention on Alex’s face. Happy month of love!

P.S. You can check out Rock the Shot here: www.rocktheshotforum.com

The One With the Curry and the Pregnant Lady

I just finished editing a photo shoot I did on Saturday for Andrew and Stephanie. I like to tell people I was the best man at their wedding. Because I was. And now they are expecting baby Tanner in about a week! So these are a few of the highlights. Oh, and the curry? That’s what we had for dinner afterwards. I had mine with shrimp and and lots of HOT.

The Noisy One

Church was loud yesterday. Not like rock band loud or anything, just Mormon loud. Babies crying, toddlers talking. It kind of sounded like we were sitting in the zoo section. And I loved it. I thought it was perfectly awesome.

We had this lady named Sister Richards who went to our church when I was growing up, and whenever a baby would cry she would turn around and glare at the parents as though they had ruined her Sunday entirely. I vowed I would never do that. And I don’t. If someone wants me to walk around with their unruly baby or toddler, I am happy to help, but if it sounds like someone is on fire behind me, I will not turn around and stare. They are going to have to tap me on the shoulder. I am no Sister Richards. :) I spent too many years with a pack of rowdy toddler boys to forget this quickly.

My sister Wendy told the story of an older lady in their ward who sat down in front of her very young, irreverent family one Sunday. About midway through the meeting, when they had reached a fever pitch of disgust for having to sit in a boring meeting for an hour and a half, the lady turned around. Wendy felt terrible for the commotion and was struggling to quiet everyone down, and the lady whispered to her: “Two words: Dime. Tapp.” Haha!

I am all for reverence, but I am also all for toddlers. Sometimes the two don’t see eye-to-eye, and if I have to choose, I’m backing the toddlers every single time.