Annual Holiday Photo.

It's that time of year again: Third annual holiday photo! This year I was invited to my old job's gala at the National harbor. And we had mucho fun.

The Chief.

I finally saw Oasis.

Until December 28th.

Fotoweek Central will be open Saturdays and Sundays 12pm-6pm until December 28th. They have some great exhibits showing. My favorite is the “Contact/s: The Art of Photojournalism from Contact Press Images"-- amazing. You can also catch the finalists and winners of Fotoweek's juried competition.

I was honored to win the Gold Prize in the Amateur Portrait category with my piece called Fleeting. All winners can now be found in slide-show format on the FotoweekDC homepage and is well worth seeing.

Thank you to all the Fotoweek sponsors, judges, and volunteers for a fantastic experience.

FotoWeek is Here!

Last night was the official opening at FotoWeekDC's hub in Georgetown. To mark the occasion, FotoWeek is having a "Night Gallery" show all around the city.

FotoWeek DC and area museums will team up to create an unprecedented, world premiere digital video slide show. During FotoWeek DC's inaugural week-long photography festival, visitors will be treated to a dazzling display of large scale projections of photographs selected from the collections of some of Washington DC's most honored institutions, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Newseum.

It was definitely a cool thing to see, and having our work included was pretty sweet. Photos courtesy of Marie Kwak and used with permission.

("Fleeting" by Katy Ray)

("What do you see" by Max Cook)

(I don't know the title or who this piece is by, but I loved it.)

Eleventh.

Today marks the 90th anniversary of Armistice Day-- a celebration of the end of the Great War and a day of remembrance for the 20 million lost in World War One.

In the US, we celebrate Veteran's Day and honor all veterans who have fought to protect our country and others.

Please keep our troops, past and present, in your thoughts today.

Official.

The finalists in the juried competition for FotoweekDC have been announced. I'm in the running with friends Max, John, and Shawn in the Portrait category. I think it's funny that we all know each other!

Winners won't be announced until the Fotoweek Gala at the NGS on the 22nd. I'll have to miss it, since I'll be in Germany (GERMANY!) visiting friends.

Our pieces will be on display November 15-22 at FotoWeek's central hub at 3338 M Street, NW in Georgetown. I encourage everyone to visit any of the Fotoweek exhibits and shows-- there's so much to see.

Writing.

I wish I had:

Dorothy Parker's wit
Michael Chabon's vocabulary
Mark Twain's mastery of satire
Stephen King's imagination
Seymour Hersh's tenacity
Scott Fitzgerald's America

Just for Now.

In the news: I started school yesterday. I'm taking Chemistry and Calculus. Mason has changed so much and may take some getting used to...so will commuting, but I can battle-ax my way through like the best of them!

This weekend, I'm going to Florida to visit my grandmother over Labor Day, and next weekend I'll be in New Orleans for a quick visit with friends.

Oh yes, and two weeks ago I went camping with some friends from college out on St. George's Island:

Monticello.

My Flickr Tags.

Jump!

Jump!
Originally uploaded by Brian Knight Photography.

Just came back from a relaxing trip to Cape Charles, Virginia.

Good friends, good food, great sunsets.

It's all Happening.

Move was a success. Also bought a car; 37 mpg, here I come!

I have to talk to Mason admissions soon. I'm limited to ten hours for the fall term, but I need 12. Uh oh.

Next Steps.

Starting school again. And moving, to boot.

Only in DC.

Today, we could actually blame the Pope for the traffic problems.

Up, Up and Away.

I love flying through the clouds, especially the giant poofy ones.

I think I read James and the Giant Peach too much as a child.

Friday.

Super-Productive Sunday.

Oil: changed.
Windows: washed.
Living room: cleaned.
Dishwasher: run.
Debit card: canceled due to fraudulent activity in the Midwest.
Police Report: filed.

Happy Leap Day!

That is all.

I think I just wanted the time stamp.

800mg.

Another for the List.

My life right now.

NBM.

So, a bunch of us visited the National Building Museum on Sunday. More photos from the meetup can be found here.

Curiouser and Curiouser.

I have to be happy about moving to Northern Virginia; the past five years have given me opportunities I might never have had. Granted, I moved here to be near my parents over the tumultuous transition years between high school, college, college and real-life, but, by actually being here NoVA (as it's lovingly-- or annoyingly-- called) has changed my outlook on life itself and has allowed me to really see who makes up this world.

I don't think I would have ever had the same opportunity to discover and explore ethnic, cultural, and racial diversity anywhere else; certainly not in Oklahoma, and definitely not to the same extent as New Orleans. I also have to give kudos to George Mason University for helping out, too. Named one of the "most diverse" colleges in the country, Mason also had a hand in my discovery phase.

I guess what prompted this post was an event that occurred this past weekend; I spent Saturday afternoon with my friend Gracie wandering around the Korean shops in Annandale, Virginia. We stopped at a Korean bakery called Shilla for pastries and coffee, where green tea was sold for your "well-being" and good health and giant bowls of fruit and shaved ice were a hot-ticket item.

Earlier that afternoon, we had stopped in a little gift shop where I bought some Rose paper for folded flowers. Gracie had mentioned that she didn't know how to make these particular roses, so I offered to teach her once we settled in the bakery. After a quick tutorial and an hour or so of gab, we noticed people staring at our table. After checking ourselves to make sure we hadn't spilled anything, I thought maybe they were staring at me, I was one of the few non-Asians in the restaurant, but no! They were looking strangely at Grace! She caught on and wondered as we were leaving, how strange it must have seemed for a Caucasian to teach a native Korean to make paper flowers.

We thought it was odd, and nonsensical, and hilarious. And it's my diversity story for the week.



"Oh, dear! What nonsense I’m talking!" --Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Almost Forgot!

Happy New Year!