Ali Ballweg

Hey all.  I just wanted to let everyone know that I do have a lot of good pictures to post on here in the near future, hopefully… it’s just a matter of finding time to sit down, edit them, and then post them.  I’m in Winona for the summer to take classes and work, and am feeling slightly overwhelmed right now.  There don’t seem to be enough hours in a day… you know how it goes.  Anyhow, I promise that there will be at least two new posts within the next week, one of flowers, and one of a view of the Wisconsin River from Ferry Bluff.  Have a great weekend.

 Yes, another picture of my shoes… Skylar laughed at me at Youth Group tonight for taking yet another picture of them.  But it turns out it had a lot to do with the theme of the night- how rich we really all are compared to the rest of the world.    

We watched Rob Bell’s video ‘Rich’ (which is amazing) and he mentioned some crazy high number, that I don’t remember, of people around the world who go without shoes every single day.  Sure I’ve worn this specific pair of shoes for over 4 years, but it’s certainly not my only pair.  I’m not a shoe obsessed girl by any means, but when I opened up my closet tonight, I counted 18 pairs of shoes. 18!  That’s ridiculous, and it’s not even counting the ones in my closet back home.

A mission is going to be starting at CBC in the next few weeks to gather shoes. A a couple missionaries in the church are going to take them down to an orphanage in Jamaica this summer and the youth group has decided to help out as much as they can.  I’m really like the idea and am excited to help out and see the outcome.  

Because I do enjoy taking pictures of shoes (who knows why), I’m going to try to think of some way to help out that way.  Maybe helping get people aware or something… I’m not sure yet.  If you have any ideas please let me know!  

Oh and enjoy this picture of the irreplaceable shoes that have carried me through so much.  I think we all have one pair of shoes like these that hold a special place in our hearts.  Unless I’m just really weird….   

I don’t know if any of you remember, but I entered a photo back in January for a show in my town.  I kind of forgot about it and never got anything saying if mine had been chosen or not.  Turns out it did!  So for those of you from Sauk, check it out at The River Arts Center in the Between The Fences display.  For those of who can’t… I’ll post it one more time.  The quality isn’t that good, however it’s the idea that I like.  It’s depicting the “boundary” between Sauk City and Prairie du Sac…. which is actually just their heritage and Oak Street.  

Tomorrow I’m off to the Kalahari to meet up with 11 of my friends for two fun filled days and nights.  I’m hoping to get some good pictures, so this is just a heads up that come Thursday, I should have some new stuff for you.  Happy spring breaking to my WSU friends!  As for the rest of you, happy studying/working!

While I was in the darkroom earlier tonight, developing some pictures for my photocomm class, there was a bit of a chemical mishap.  Basically, the stop bath was out, so a viscomm student decided to refill it on her own, and having no idea what she was doing, poured the whole jug of stop bath (which is supposed to be diluted 16:1 with water) into the tray… And it stayed like that for oh, 4 or 5 minutes before I was like “ummm, I can’t breathe, what in the world is going on” and then rushed over to get the chemicals back into the jug.  So I ended up breathing in way more stop bath fumes than any human should ever be exposed to, and in the process burnt my nostrils and got a wonderful headache.  Needless to say, I’m praying that I wake up in the morning.

If life gives you lemons,

Make lemonade; they say

It’s not always that easy, I reply

If you don’t like the direction you’re headed,

Change course; they say

It’s not always that easy, I reply

Don’t cry because it’s over,

Smile because it happened; they say

It’s not always that easy, I reply

If you worry about today’s failures,

Tomorrow’s successes will be few; they say

It’s not always that easy, I reply

Make someday,

Today; they say

It’s not always that easy, I reply

If life we’re easy,

Then it would be boring; they say

What’s wrong with that? I reply

I’m in Photocommunication this semester and our first assignment is a photograph that tells a story and elicts an emotion.  As you can obviously tell, I choose depression.  Not the happiest of topics… but it gets the veiwer’s attention and draws them in, making them think.  Anywho, the assignment isn’t due for a couple weeks, but I had the opportunity to join Jordan in his studio this afternoon and took advantage of it.  That being said, I haven’t decided which photo I want to turn in, so any input would be fantastic, thanks!

I just real quickly wanted to give some credit to the creator of this awesome new blog.  Jordan Ogren’s the mastermind behind it and I really appreciate his help, because everyone knows the relationship between technology and I is hate/hate.  So thanks a TON Jordan!

Sitting at home has been getting pretty boring and poses few opportunities for me to take pictures, so I headed up to the gym once again to hang out at practice.  They’re probably getting pretty sick of me being there all the time, but I’m having a lot of fun.  And I’m actually going to be rather dissapointed to not get to see them finish out the season, oh well. 

The first picture is of Chantel practicing her straddle back release move.  The second is of my best friend Krista zoning out… or concentrating, you decide.  And the last is of Dani chalking up her grips.  Well that’s all I’ve got for now, Peace Out.