Uncategorized

So I haven’t updated this blog since it was a class assignment but I want to pick up with it again.

On Thursday (4/29) I’ll be boarding a plane at Dulles and heading off to Israel and Palestine for a 10 trip/ flim-making experience. I’m really excited about the trip and have already pretty much finished packing. I’d like to say that it’s all from motivation but it’s partially because I’ll have no time once the week starts as well as I’m procrastinating from cleaning my house. But regardless I’ll admit that I’m quite proud of myself for fitting 10+ days of clothing and basic amenities as well as a pillow and yoga mat for camping on the beach of Galilee, all in one small travel size suit-case! For all of you who say women cannot pack light! I beg to differ (or perhaps I just pack well and have learned how to shove a shit-ton of stuff into one suitcase)

For proof:

Yeah. I’m super pleased with myself!

But anyway, I’ll be taking off on Thursday. I’m going with National Community Church. It’s a missions trip to the region. So yeah, it’s a God thing. I’m going to explore religion and the role it plays in my own life. What better place to do that than in the Holy Land.

But the trip is more than that. I’m part of a crew that’s going to be filming a documentary about the journey of 4 people going on this trip. Though most of the 4 view this as simply a journey to visit the roots of their religion, they will also be forced to face the present-day situation and see the current day political climate up close. Most Christians, or at least the one’s who speak their mind, are conservative, right-wing, zionists. We want our community to make an informed decision through what they see with their own eyes and figure out their own stance on the situation. As a Christian do you have to believe that the area belongs to the Jewish people?

So we’ll be following these people as they experience the Holy Land but also as they experience the occupation. We’ll be spending time in both Israel and Palestinian territories and passing through check-points along with everyone else. We’ll also be stopping by an orphanage (that I got my work to donate tons of supplies too YAY!) and a refugee camp, as well as a settlement tour.

So hopefully I’ll come back with some great footage as well as some super photographs to share!

Katie.

Polaroid may be stopping the manufacturing of polaroid film, but the polaroid feeling lives on. Poladroid
is a fun and easy, downloadable to Macs or PC, software that brings all of the fun of the Polaroid to your desktop! And for way cheaper too since a box of the cheapest film still ran around fifteen bucks for only a handful of exposures.

Not only does the downloadable program convert your photos to one of your timeless, favorite formats, it recreates the process too. After you drag the photo you want as a Polaroid into the little camera icon on your desktop and you hear the familiar “click,” the picture will appear on your desktop as well. You get to watch the entire Polaroid process unfold as time goes by and the picture darkens. Heck, you can even shake your computer a little if you’d really like to get into it. Though this time, it actually won’t ruin the development process of the photo. You can also stop the development at any attime to create whatever kind of coloring you like.

It’s amazing. The gratification is even more instant than with the Polaroid itself.

And if sharing your photos with your friends is not enough, simply upload them to the Poladroid Flickr Account. But let me remind you. If your picture is bad, turning it into a Polaroid picture will not make it a good one. So don’t even try.

Here are a few of my own favorites from the website: