A Flash of Bright Light

SO WHAT'S UP GUYS

2010-03-20T19:52:10Z

It has now been about a week since the diana arrived
i spent all of last week on one roll, then i brought it to rite aid where apparently it'll take a week to develop.
A WEEK, REALLY?
last time i checked, there were about a dozen one-hour photo labs about 40 blocks downtown.
rite aid is pretty lucky that i don't want to go that far down to get my photos developed.
i think i will next time though

so along with this being a regular blog, i am thinking of making photos a more constant ingredient as well! What do you think?

i have to go cause my mother is mad
great

love,
asya

HOLLER

2010-03-13T19:39:16Z

YESTERDAY THE DIANA MINI CAME IN THE MAIL FOR ME
HURRAY
IT'S BEAUTIFUL I LOVE IT SO MUCH!

Today I trekked through several blocks of freezing rain and wind, took a train several stops, walked several more blocks fighting against the biting cold and bought film for it.

For those who need a little reminder of what the Diana Mini is,

BOOM IT'S BEAUTIFUL, RIGHT
the flash bulb came at 6 pm or so
2 hours later the camera arrived :D
and i was freaking out
it is my dream camera
forget dslr's and polaroids (although my sister's polaroid cameras, one of which is from my dearest aunt are pretty cool)

Love,
iscaptain

It has been a while

2010-02-28T23:32:22Z

I just went to the grocery.

So today I woke up at 10 and I felt like the morning was already half-wasted. Out to eat, then back, then grocery, and now here I am, typing a blog entry about a most boring day. I just want to sleep and have more time to do work and feel productive and feel like I'm actually doing something worth doing, because school, for something that takes up so much of my day,is starting to feel like such a waste of time.

I guess I get it though. Sometimes you just need to do something, because it pays off, even if you don't want to do it.

Otherwise, two days ago we had a snow day and that was the most fun I had all week. Watching Prisoner of Azkaban with my older sister and making horrendously snarky comments.

Addicted to the following song, it's all I ever listen to when I walk.

Love,

asya

iscaptain @ 2010-02-12T18:11:00

2010-02-12T23:11:08Z

what a good day today :)

something that really cheers me up is cheering other people up.

i know that it is freezing but i think we have to walk

2010-02-11T23:16:44Z

So I spent yesterday inside my abode, listening to my sister's music and ripping CD's while the snow was gloriously falling in flurries outside the window. I made paper snowflakes out of interior design magazines and taped them to my windows. My sister and I went to the grocery and, on the way back, she kicked a head off of a small snowman. I was laughing so hard.
Afterwards, we had a snowball fight. For dinner there was manicotti:

After dinner I made a cake with "rainbow chips" in it, with matching rainbow chip icing that I applied too early and melted off the cake anyway.
Then we watched The Darjeeling Limited. I was laughing so hard.

Recently I've been feeling down. I mean, I know it doesn't sound like it from earlier in this entry, but I feel a little gray. I don't blame my friends or my family, whom I love and are marvelous and wonderful in all regards.
I just feel lonely, and only a bit despondent.
Maybe I'm prepping up for another Aimee Mann/ Adrian Tomine episode.

If you click, you get information.

Love,
iscaptain

iscaptain @ 2010-02-09T17:35:00

2010-02-09T22:36:00Z

Good news!

SNOW DAY TOMORROW

Snow is a weird thing.

For it to snow, the tops of clouds must be below 0 degrees Celsius, or 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
The greatest snowfall officially reported in Phoenix, Arizona, was one inch. The first time it happened in 1933 on January 20th, and then again 4 years later on the same date.
Snow is actually clear/transparent.
Snowflakes apparently form in five to six main shapes.

Anyway, without food coloring snow is not going to be of much use to me. I could make a snowman, but hereabouts snow gets dirty and icy pretty quick. By icy I mean solid. I'm probably just going to sleep really heartily, or go to a friend's house to watch movies.

Life can be exceedingly boring sometimes. I wish inspiration would just, like, BOOM hit me, and that's why the name of my blog changed, but really I just want to sleep. And maybe be a foodie. Forget gourmets.

Glad I rented library books! I should really make sure I return them on time.
I rented two PostSecret books, a book on Banksy, a book on electric guitars, a book on a decade of art in somewhere( Tokion, I think), a collection of comics by Adrian Tomine called Scrapbook, and a bunch of CD's (by Lily Allen, Franz Ferdinand, Animal Collective, and Tender Buttons). Oh, and a DVD of The Darjeeling Limited.

I'm out.

Love,
iscaptain

iscaptain @ 2010-02-06T11:17:00

2010-02-06T16:17:53Z

February has come!

All I've been doing is listening to Fiona Apple and Bright Eyes and Metric. I'm glad it's a weekend, I feel like I have a lot to do.
LIKE SAVE UP MONEY FOR THIS BABY:
ISN'T IT BEAUTIFUL?

that's the camera that i want. The Diana 35mm, with a flash.
It's really poor quality, because it's not very well-built
the light leaks in and exposes the film
so this is what the pictures look like:

Anyway, it's a real hipster camera.
I don't care, I still want it.

So, in order to make money I have come up with the following ideas

1) Sell cupcakes at school
2) busk
3) dog-walk (hahaha.)

The problem with the first is that I'll get in a ton of trouble if the administratrz find out
The problem is the second is that my mother hates the idea
The problem with the third is that I have minimal experience.

I'm still going to go busking. It makes a ton of money.

If you have any other job ideas?

Love,
iscaptainnn

iscaptain @ 2010-01-07T21:34:00

2010-01-08T02:34:18Z

T

These are the two pictures I submitted for a contest.

:)

Hey Y'all

2010-01-03T19:30:08Z

Happy New Year! I didn't go to Times Square this year because I was just too tired to deal with the inevitable crowd(s) there. I'm pretty excited for the new year. Change doesn't even need to come with a new year, it can take place anytime or day, but a brand new calendar compels some people to really take initiative.

I have no resolutions because I know I can't follow through with most of them, but whatever.

Good things that can happen (If not during this year, then any)

Musical growth
Educational growth, and not in the Public High School sense
Making people happy!
Baking
Religious growth
New friends
More writing in my blog!
More zine-publishing.
More performing
Expression through arts of all kinds:
-Maybe the photography blog should just sort of expand into an arts blog-- but I should just do that here.
-DIY clothing
-interior design- a living is one of the best canvases I can think of. Speaking of interior design, I should really get around to showing off the butterflies above my wall.
Closer ties with the people I already love
More concerts, I seriously need to go see some free shows or something

Lengthy list if you ask me.

Good morning!

Another Day

2009-12-30T15:05:52Z

Of nothing. I am feeling pretty sickly, complete with congested nasal passages and a sore throat.

I feel like I'm going to waste the rest of winter break like this. I really hope not, but all I can really do is sleep and do homework.

OATMEAL

iscaptain @ 2009-12-25T12:52:00

2009-12-25T17:52:56Z

So!!!

Winter break is thrilling me. So. much. free. time.
My sister is home! I have no idea for how long. For that matter, I have no idea when Winter Break ends.

Nothing much to talk about. I have lots of homework, and the photography midyear project is fairly disappointing. I have to write an essay about a particular given museum exhibit. I was hoping it would be an actual photography assignment.

to be continued. 12:52 pm

iscaptain @ 2009-12-14T19:52:00

2009-12-15T00:52:37Z

Oh man, it's been awhile.

Well, there's nothing too new in my life. Homework tends to beat me up, but whatever.

This year's school play was Alice in Wonderland. Stage crew was a hassle but everything was done in time! The mushrooms in the forest backdrop even glowed in the dark.

So I'm trying to work on the new issue of the zine-- concepts and whatnot. It's getting increasingly hard to keep up with it from month to month. I really think The Little Lemmings will be a sporadic thing.

Other things I 'm thinking of:

-A photography blog. Aside from my personal blog, which you're reading right now. Good idea? Yes? No? I need somewhere to put my pictures and self-portraits other than facebook or my hard drive. I don't even consider myself a photographer. Ew.

-A music profile on myspace. I even started recording stuff on the laptop my brother gave me. His old laptop, naturally. I need to name this baby something cool, like Starfish or something. I think Starfish could suffice. Or it could be the name of my guitar. Or my new fresh-offa-craigslist keyboard.

Good things:

-I have a bunch of A's
-I don't seem to be completely bombing chemistry
-I made a zebra skirt
-there are a bunch of songs I want to cover

I just don't seem to have the time to do any of this, what with school and homework and things not worth learning.

Love,
iscaptain

iscaptain @ 2009-11-28T23:14:00

2009-11-29T04:14:54Z

My sister's home! Wow, a lot of time has passed since my last post!

ok so...
Thanksgiving was pretty nice, me, my sister, mother and brother went to my mother's friend's house. For the first time in a while, I got to practice my Russian. It was awkward.

I wanted to go see Where the Wild Things Are with my sister, but we left the house too late, as always. Some other time, maybe.

Today we went on a train and traveled north for an hour and a half. Once we arrived at some podunk little town, we browsed through one of the three billion antique shops they had. I found a manual camera for 10 dollars.

I don't really know if anyone's guessed by now, but I kind of want to pursue photography. As a hobby, maybe. But for several reasons I can't.

1. I feel like I'm stealing my sister's thunder, because she is much more of a better photographer than I could be.
2. Manual cameras mean more to me than digital cameras.
3. I cannot afford a manual camera, nor the means of maintaining one.

So this camera cost 10 dollars, and I still didn't get it

but whatever!

love,
iscaptain

Costumes Are So Entertaining

2009-10-30T21:19:01Z

Yesterday was the day that costumes were allowed at my school, so I had a very fun time looking at the different characters and things people chose to be.

1.Several Maxes from Where the Wild Things Are
2.A Yip Yip
LIKE THIS ONE, BUT GREEN

3.WALDO (but a girl) <--- In Tech Drawing I saw her outside in the court yard, so I stood up and screamed, "There's Waldo!" Half the class stood up in the back of the room, and the other half craned their necks as far as they could to look outside the window.

4.vampires/zombies/clowns/whatever
5.The Burger King
6. A couple dressed up as Mustard and Ketchup
7. Two people named Adam and Eve wore loose skin-colored suits with leaves on them over their privates
8. One of my best friends dressed up as Carl from Up. She had the suit and a bunch of balloons and heard there was someone dressed up as Russell and someone else dressed up as the bird! We were walking up the stairs to drama class when she walked through the double doors of the staircase into another girl with 15 or so badges across her front and a bunch of balloons tied to her backpack. She and my friend started squealing and hugged each other, and they had no idea of the other's names.
9. Lucille Ball
10. Apparently there was a piece of toast

When I remember more I'll post.

Love,
iscaptain

EDIT
Also, I got a spontaneous haircut while working on an essay! I feel great.

iscaptain @ 2009-10-27T20:43:00

2009-10-28T01:21:01Z

This weekend I pulled the first all-nighter of the entire term to work on an essay. Glad to say I finished to turn it in confidently (I hope!) I slept for 3 1/2 hours at 3:30 am and woke up at 6. I felt energized the whole day, it was weird.

I don't understand why all the freshmen this year are massive David Bowie fans. I mean, I know Ziggy Stardust is good but I just think the whole occurrence of the freshmen THIS year to like him so much is a little strange.

I've been feeling really marvelous as of late. On the train home yesterday, I was feeling kind of down but I kept smiling at people so they could lighten up too (people can be so down-in-the-dumps sometimes, I feel bad) and this girl i smiled at decided to take a picture of me with her huge camera. Creepy as this may be, I still am a little flattered. I am not that scared because the picture was taken from above and did not include most of my face.

Gotta go do homework!

Love,
iscaptain

ROFL FALOFLZ

2009-10-18T02:16:41Z

Faloflz should be my stage name.

The 80's taste delicious!

So a couple days ago I watched the best animation ever, made by one of the best people I have ever met and am so fortunate to have in my life: zeelt. It was such a great pick-me-up and one of the best things about it is that I can watch it again and again. It's about a monkey balloon named Delilah that I had when I graduated years ago. One day, I was outside with her and she floated away! In the animation, I see what happened after that. What a wonderful story :D :D :D

I'm still working on the zine! It's harder now, I suppose due to my lack of practice. That's a horrible thing about me, if you haven't noticed my reading my journal, I can hardly ever finished anything I start. I really want to release it next week, and with stage crew starting next week, and also a new (I forget the other word for this) marking period I have my work cut out for me!

Lately I have been watching Disney movies in 10 minute segments on youtube. So far I've gone through Hercules, Pocahontas and Mulan. I started Tarzan, but he and Jane annoyed me so much that I switched to The Nightmare Before Christmas. Phil Collins was superb though. Next up is Corpse Bride. Did you know that Corpse Bride was a project created specifically for Helena Bonham Carter?

Where the Wild Things Are was amazing. I caught the 11:10 show with my brother and my mom. I loved it! The graphics were great, especially since the characters onscreen have a near-identical appearance in the book.

Also I love Max's wolf suit.

I would very much like a wild thing.

The storyline was also wonderful, considering that the theme was consistent with, and expanded delightfully on, a ten sentence story. I loved the vocal performance of the actors behind the Wild Things and also the overall performance of Max Records as Max. The characters were so well-developed-- struggling, loving, angry, confused, cynical, and very real creatures.

"The wild things are humanized into ageless characters who love, fight, create and destroy."

Watch it. Please. You will laugh and cry.

Quote of the Until Next Quote: "Please don't go-- I'll eat you up, I love you so."

Love,
iscaptain

Otherwise, nothing really big has happened to me. I decorated the wall above my bed with butterflies. Pictures coming soon?

iscaptain @ 2009-10-05T19:38:00

2009-10-06T00:03:55Z

Nothing to post about!

Alice in Wonderland is indeed the play this year, and I can't wait to work on it.

I met this girl with outrageously wonderful outfits. Freshmen!

Currently I'm watching The Nightmare Before Christmas on youtube. I've learned how to play Sally's Song on guitar and that's all I play as of late! I think Jack and Sally are good for each other since they're both really, really tall.The movie is definitely one of my favorites, and Tim Burton is one of my favorite directors! What are your favorite Burton works?

Homework has indeed begun to rain.

Love,
iscaptain

iscaptain @ 2009-09-23T18:32:00

2009-09-23T22:56:07Z

I just opened the scariest e-card I have ever received! Jazakullahukhair, Tita! I LOVE ITTT.

In more recent news:

- stage crew starts mid- october and the school play is a toss-up between The Real Inspector Hound and ALICE IN WONDERLAND. Guess which one I'm voting for? The problem is that Alice in Wonderland doesn't make sense while The Real Inspector Hound does. But seriously? A one-act play over ALICE IN WONDERLAND? Come on, guys.

- i've started sacrificing my lunch period for drama class. It's not an official switch and I don't get credit for it, but it's always good to get some sort of experience in something as interesting as this.

- homework has been unleashed! For now only a few of my classes assign a lot of homework but I have a lot of free time. This will not be the case once I join stage crew, but crew will be worth it.

- a move to a new apartment takes its toll. I still haven't even begun decorating the walls D:

as usual, life is really scary. I always feel like staying inside and sleeping because I don't think I can take the company of so many other people in one city.

Love,
iscaptain

TOMORROW IS EID

2009-09-19T14:10:12Z

!!!!!!

I think the plan is to tonight have some sort of thing at the new apartment and then tomorrow go to the masjid and eat out. I'm very excited. I already got several presents SO ALL I HAVE TO DO IS PACKAGE AND SHIP.

Tomorrow deserves an Eid post! It'll be about past Eids and etcetera. Look out for it!

So other than my photography class I like school. Several of my teachers seem to really like what they teach. Here's a guide:

Chemistry teacher- experienced
P.E. teacher- meh, I only have P.E. three times a week
English- very interesting. very kooky.
Some computer class thing- weird.
(digital) Photography- talks too fast
Spanish- same as last year- disorganized
Social Studies- passionate
Math- sweats a lot. talks too fast but can handle it!

Now that I'm in a list mood:

Songs That I Can Play On Guitar

Sea of Love- Cat Power
Remembering Sunday- All Time Low
The Girl's a Straight-Up Hustler- All Time Low
Hallelujah- Kate Voegele's cover
At the Bottom of Everything- Bright Eyes
Bleed Like Me- Garbage
Ten Cent Blues- Eisley
Daniel- Bat for Lashes

That's all I can think of right now.

Love,
iscaptain

School

2009-09-14T20:47:41Z

There are freshmen everywhere! You can tell they're freshmen because of the big eyes and the cautious shoulders.

As of right now, there isn't anything too interesting to read here. Other than I quit my band.

The photography class I'm taking is actually digital photography, which is a little disappointing. The school can't even lend us DSLRs.

I'm looking for a good read outside of school work and harry potter. Any suggestions?

iscaptain @ 2009-09-05T21:00:00

2009-09-06T01:03:48Z

So school starts in a few days, I'm sick and I can't fast.

It sucks.

I have to go clean the kitchen.

Love,
iscaptain

iscaptain @ 2009-08-30T07:08:00

2009-08-30T11:26:04Z

Dear Tita,
LOL i feel hungry but i didn't eat Suhur. :(

Love,
iscaptain

So two days ago my siblings and mother and I took a car to my sister's college! It was raining really really hard so we stopped four hours into the drive and slept in a holiday inn. sometime very early in the morning, the fire alarm went off! we were some of the first people outside (i had no shoes on, and had to put them on outside), and when more came out we realized that we were the only ones who did not follow precautions: we were fully packed, fully clothed and looked like we were ready to run.

The next morning we made it to the school and helped her unpack. It was sad.

Love,
iscaptain

The city

2009-08-27T12:59:28Z

I got to ride business class from Japan to San Francisco, which was an experience. You should have seen the leg room. It was amazing.
I forgot to wake up for Suhur so now I'm fasting and I'm extra hungry. Usually I get hungry around 3 to 4 but it's only morning here. And I'm starving.

I sincerely cannot live in the city. It's too scary haha. I suppose I'll just stay inside and what not.

Love,
iscaptain

iscaptain @ 2009-08-21T09:36:00

2009-08-21T01:55:10Z

Oh NO! It can't be over this soon!

Things I am Excited About:

1. seeing Tita

2. showing up at school with a BRAND NEW ME

3. decorating my new room!

*** a note: wall color and lighting cannot be hidden, if your walls are as white as a dentist's office and your lights are as flourescent as a Wal-Marts, it will be awkward.

4. choreographing a performance for the school's music festival to "At the Bottom of Everything"

***at the line "Set fire to the preacher" should i have a random person run through the background screaming and wearing bright orange clothes and waving some yellow-orange aluminum paper? That would be hilarious.

5. starting to work on my new award winning book- a compilation of life stories and pictures and nonsense.

6. publishing the mega-issue of the zine

7. going to the library

8. perhaps working on the music video for Raining Jane. i stopped last time because all my pictures were deleted.

9. maybe working on a musical!

10. watching movies in theaters by myself. with caution.

11. spending lots of time by myself next year.

I once thought of myself as a rock and roller, until I said, "Face the music. Mid-tempo jams and weird noises flow through your veins." I hope this change is for the better. I feel that it is (InshaAllah) because it's closer to my heart. I'm pretty sure that music isn't the right direction for me. The most appealing aspect of it has always been the performing or the entertainment, really it's music and performing are outlets to be imaginative and creative and expressive of yourself. Like interior design and writing, which are my other two top career choices.

Once I decorate my new room perhaps I'll put up a picture or two.

things i need to buy:

1. a disposable camera

2. stickers

3. a bulletin board

4. white board markers

5. a jar

6. window stickers, or not.

7. earrings with studs in the back

8. old magazines and newspapers

9. a new journal

I've already gone and choreographed the dance to At the Bottom of Everything. It involves 8 people, 8 chairs, several paper fish, 1 large poster board submarine and 1 large poster board shark, 8 flashlights, 8 paper hearts, and 8 paper planes. Have I forgotten something? Oh yeah: 6 poster board signs that say words like "ANARCHIST" and "DOESN'T", 1 magazine, 1 giant poster board sun and 8 paper cups. All I need to do now is learn the song on guitar, recruit dancers, make props and practice practice practice! I'm very excited!

OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND!

I've just sent an e-mail to one band and one of my all time favorite artists requesting an interview. I've told you about the artist: The one who goes by Color Me Katie. She seems very sweet and her artwork is outrageously imaginative.

As for redecorating my room, I'm thinking of putting a giant speech bubble above where I sleep, and then all my posters put up in a museum-like fashion on the wall across from my bed. I want to put strings of lights on the ceiling, and flowers and snowflakes crawling up the walls. There will be a lot of construction paper/ cardstock decorations on the wall as well (InshaAllah). I'd like the curtains to be blank white like the ones I had in my old apartment so I can fabric paint them. I want to keep the theme artsy and floral, and also add kind of like, a magical, strange, natural performance quality, like an alternative concert at night in a forest. that's what the strings of lights are for.

If I were to go under a performing name I would be The Vaudeville Monster. Or Children's Bookstore. Or A Floral Alternative. That's the best one yet. And when people ask why, I can just say, because after a year of me not being me, I needed a reinvention. So I called it A Floral Alternative.

To tell you all the truth, folks, I did not feel at all like myself last year. Something was terribly wrong but I guess that's part of growing up. It's a suffering and a pain in the butt since most of the time you hate what you are and you can't figure out what's wrong. You look at yourself and you try on new stuff and you have to decide what's really you, what you believe in and what you stand up for and what you stick to. And the whole year I really did feel like sometimes the hardest thing in the world is being who you are. I took a break from everything and I thought and thought and thought and at first I was wrong, really really wrong, but then all of a sudden things changed, for the better, I hope. I feel like this is what I should have been all of last year but I can't change the past, so all I can do is be what I am next year. I really loved the person I was before last year but I can never gain that person back. And it's still a struggle to stay myself and kind of throw off all the influences that I don't and never wanted (not like drugs, you silly geese. more like-- people whose traits are outrageously undesirable, but I was forced to be around them. Like teachers.) but I think that I'm getting better at this. So it's really time to move on and rise, and maybe not exactly along the lines of recuperate or convalesce, but more like stripping away all the falsehood and, for the first time in a really long while, just listening to my heart. I feel like I've been hiding for so long but brand new all the same, like a present that you forget and then open a whole year later. I will be constantly changing in ways that I hope are improvements. It's in moments like this that I realize who I want to be and what I'm supposed to do with my life, at least for the moment: to do well in school, to be Muslim, to not continue through with that certain rock and roll interpretation of music that I used to have. When people say that you find yourself when you're a teenager I never really knew what they meant until these days, and it's so beautiful. A revelation or a realization. A bloom. A floral alternative.

There are opportunites out there and I am so excited.

Love, love, love,

iscaptain

Here's a reference for ya:

Writer's Block: Let’s Get Physical

2009-08-20T01:28:11Z

What are your fitness goals? What is helping or preventing you from accomplishing them?

Presented by Intel, Sponsors of Tomorrow.

View 486 Answers

One of my fitness goals was to be able to do the splits. Unfortunately I've lost some of my (most of my) flexibility as of late due to my lack of practice. Darn.
What is helping me: thinking about it
What is preventing me: being too lazy to do anything about it.

Another one of my fitness goals is to be able to run a mile. Unfortunately I've lost some of my (most of my) perseverance as of late due to my lack of practice. Darn.
What is helping me: thinking about it
What is preventing me: being too lazy to do anything about it.

Love,
iscaptain