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LJ is being a bitch
Oct. 16th, 2006 06:01 pmI wanted to upload a few pictures from yesterday's photography quest but GOOD GRIEF! I can't even comment on people's entries!
The weekend was a mix of frustration and fun. Jonathan is making me grow up. Saturday I felt like a true mom, nagging and harping and trying to get him to understand why his grades are important and why he has to do things that don't interest him. In the time I put in 9 hours on my homework, he put in two or three and that was with his internet access turned off.
Ugh. I remember being on the other side of that. The major difference is he has abilities I never had and it drives me crazy to see him blithely throwing away future opportunities he can't even conceive of today. Even telling him that didn't help. The arguments boiled down to: "Just DO it."
He was grumping about the California community service requirement he has to fulfill to get into a university. He thinks it's prostitution to do something you don't care about just to get into a school. I talked about "broading horizons" by doing something like that. It fell on deaf ears. He is interested in learning about people so we may be able to find something for him to do that will feed that. This morning it occurred to me that he was interested in participating in the burrowing owl count at NASA next summer. That just might qualify! I'm checking that out.
Sunday I'd promised we'd go out and find interesting things for him to photograph for his photography class assignment. That was a fun day. :)
He got a few pictures at NASA on Friday after I got off work. We searched for the turtle pond behind the golf course and we found it but the turtles must all have been hiding. Sunday, we went to the Japanese Friendship Garden in San Jose's Kelley Park. He got a good number of photos there and then we wandered through the park down to the creek where he wanted to get a photo of water. yuck. I remember that creek being clear when I was a kid. It's murky brown now. There was trash all over the place. I found a shopping bag and started picking stuff up. With another bag I thought I was picking up a latex glove. It wasn't a glove at all. It was a used condom. ewwwwww! Glad I had a bag over my hand for that! Jonathan found a milk crate and started filling it. After we cleaned up the area he suddenly realized he could have taken a picture with the trash all over and again with it all cleaned up. I reminded him our collection contained a used condom and a dirty diaper he'd found. He decided to stage it with the collected trash instead.
I found a log with mushrooms growing inside it. He didn't think it would work out in black and white. I'll be interested to see his reaction when I send him the photo changed to gray tones. It was beautiful! But then, this is his first roll of film for the class. Unless he really picked up on settings, he'll probably be a bit disappointed with the outcome anyway.
With lots more photos on his roll to be taken, we paid the fee to go into the zoo and children's park. The lemurs were not cooperative for the most part, giving us their behinds to photograph. We now know which ones are male. lol
The fishing cat has outgrown his enclosure and is pacing too fast to photograph well. Poor kitty!
We saw happy potbellied pigs and got to see capybaras swimming for their yummy bamboo dinner! I've never seen happy capybaras before.
At Happy Hollow, Jonathan went inside the crooked house to take interesting architectural photos. He actually went inside most of the little structures meant for children half his height and tried to get me to go inside, too. I wouldn't. I did get a cute photo of him about to slide down a kiddie slide. He looks like a giant next to the doorway with the slide. If only I'd known he'd never been to Happy Hollow, I would have taken him there when he was little. He got some interesting photos of the maze and of the lighting fixtures around the park.
Then we headed out back through the Japanese Friendship Garden to where I'd parked my car on the street to save a $6.00 parking fee. SIX DOLLARS????? That's crazy. No wonder the parking lot was mostly empty. Getting into Happy Hollow and the zoo only cost us $8.00 each.
He started to interview me for his English assignment and realized he knows me really well already. He decided to interview Eric instead. When we got back I heated leftover pizza while he interviewed. Eric really opened up to him and Jonathan learned a lot he didn't know. As we left to take him home, he told Eric he's up on the uncle list now. Eric was really touched by that. :)
Gotta run. Hopefully, lj will be feeling better tonight so I can upload a few pictures.
The weekend was a mix of frustration and fun. Jonathan is making me grow up. Saturday I felt like a true mom, nagging and harping and trying to get him to understand why his grades are important and why he has to do things that don't interest him. In the time I put in 9 hours on my homework, he put in two or three and that was with his internet access turned off.
Ugh. I remember being on the other side of that. The major difference is he has abilities I never had and it drives me crazy to see him blithely throwing away future opportunities he can't even conceive of today. Even telling him that didn't help. The arguments boiled down to: "Just DO it."
He was grumping about the California community service requirement he has to fulfill to get into a university. He thinks it's prostitution to do something you don't care about just to get into a school. I talked about "broading horizons" by doing something like that. It fell on deaf ears. He is interested in learning about people so we may be able to find something for him to do that will feed that. This morning it occurred to me that he was interested in participating in the burrowing owl count at NASA next summer. That just might qualify! I'm checking that out.
Sunday I'd promised we'd go out and find interesting things for him to photograph for his photography class assignment. That was a fun day. :)
He got a few pictures at NASA on Friday after I got off work. We searched for the turtle pond behind the golf course and we found it but the turtles must all have been hiding. Sunday, we went to the Japanese Friendship Garden in San Jose's Kelley Park. He got a good number of photos there and then we wandered through the park down to the creek where he wanted to get a photo of water. yuck. I remember that creek being clear when I was a kid. It's murky brown now. There was trash all over the place. I found a shopping bag and started picking stuff up. With another bag I thought I was picking up a latex glove. It wasn't a glove at all. It was a used condom. ewwwwww! Glad I had a bag over my hand for that! Jonathan found a milk crate and started filling it. After we cleaned up the area he suddenly realized he could have taken a picture with the trash all over and again with it all cleaned up. I reminded him our collection contained a used condom and a dirty diaper he'd found. He decided to stage it with the collected trash instead.
I found a log with mushrooms growing inside it. He didn't think it would work out in black and white. I'll be interested to see his reaction when I send him the photo changed to gray tones. It was beautiful! But then, this is his first roll of film for the class. Unless he really picked up on settings, he'll probably be a bit disappointed with the outcome anyway.
With lots more photos on his roll to be taken, we paid the fee to go into the zoo and children's park. The lemurs were not cooperative for the most part, giving us their behinds to photograph. We now know which ones are male. lol
The fishing cat has outgrown his enclosure and is pacing too fast to photograph well. Poor kitty!
We saw happy potbellied pigs and got to see capybaras swimming for their yummy bamboo dinner! I've never seen happy capybaras before.
At Happy Hollow, Jonathan went inside the crooked house to take interesting architectural photos. He actually went inside most of the little structures meant for children half his height and tried to get me to go inside, too. I wouldn't. I did get a cute photo of him about to slide down a kiddie slide. He looks like a giant next to the doorway with the slide. If only I'd known he'd never been to Happy Hollow, I would have taken him there when he was little. He got some interesting photos of the maze and of the lighting fixtures around the park.
Then we headed out back through the Japanese Friendship Garden to where I'd parked my car on the street to save a $6.00 parking fee. SIX DOLLARS????? That's crazy. No wonder the parking lot was mostly empty. Getting into Happy Hollow and the zoo only cost us $8.00 each.
He started to interview me for his English assignment and realized he knows me really well already. He decided to interview Eric instead. When we got back I heated leftover pizza while he interviewed. Eric really opened up to him and Jonathan learned a lot he didn't know. As we left to take him home, he told Eric he's up on the uncle list now. Eric was really touched by that. :)
Gotta run. Hopefully, lj will be feeling better tonight so I can upload a few pictures.
