122/365

'puter head. And I also have a mini Beetlejuice head.

*shake, shake, shake senora, shake your body line*

121/365

If I was my age in the 80's, this is most likely what I would have looked like. I loved the flamboyance of the decade, and I most certainly loved the music. I swear I was born in the wrong decade to experience the 80's in my twenties. 80's metal, pop, the whole shebang. AND the MOVIES!

I look punky here, but that's the whole fun of it.

120/365

I once stretched my ears to a 0g. That's about the size of your average pinky, or maybe just my pinky.  They were that way for a good 2 years, but eventually I outgrew it. But, now I'm left with this small hole as a reminder to not do things to my body I might later regret. I can't wear studs anymore and I'll probably have to have surgery later in life to make it smaller. I don't want to be an old lady and have giant, stretchy, oogly holes.

119/365

Stephen got a PS3 and Queen Singstar for Christmas. This is so retardedly fun, but listening to the playback is hilarious. Wow, we can't sing worth poo.

118/365

This is how those old drama masks have always looked like to me. Just plain ol' creepy.

This one was weird. The "happy" mask looks funky. I like the "sad" one, but the happy creeps me out more than anything. I dunno. I messed with Liquify in Adobe, but I couldn't make it look any less odd. Or a bit more natural even though it's far from it. The sad works to me somehow, but the happy not so much. Oh well.

Texture by pareerica

117/365

I'm a bit behind for the 26th. With my family still staying the night, I couldn't be "loud" and take pictures at night like I normally do. I also was a lazy ass and slept until 5pm and had to work at 6pm. I got off at 2am and here is all I could muster for yesterday. Sorry. Lame-o, but I needed something. Tomorrow after work I'll have a chance to take a photo for today and hopefully I can pull something cool off.

116/365

Later on, we'll conspire, As we dream by the fire... ...with new christmas socks :)

View On Black

115/365

'Twas the night before christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. 

My Family is at my house and when you get us all together, it gets loud. It's like everyone tries to out-talk each other. It's rather funny, but for any non-family, probably nuts. I understand why Stephen doesn't like coming to any of my family events. We are both quiet and reserved compared to our families. So, I understand where he comes from. But, I enjoy it at least the few times a year that we all get together. It seems I'm one of the few who actually enjoys and looks forward to seeing my family.  My full family. Maybe it was all those German get together's growing up. I feel lucky because I got to know my Great Grandma and Grandpa. And love them as much as I love my grandparents. I miss those big christmases at the farm. 

Flickr Account

I've paid for another flickr pro account so I can add my 365 and get access to my photos that were taken away from me when my pro account expired. Now I can add my 365 there as well and also use the awesome View on Black option. I also would like it so that I can upload a lot of photos other than my 365. It'd be nice to take photos of things other than myself. Especially if Japan gets rolling.

114/365

It's only 2 days until christmas. I wanted to use christmas lights at least one more time before Christmas came and went. I look a bit lost in the eyes, but I love the way christmas lights cast the deep shadows and soft light on everything. It may not be that creative, but the contrast is worth it.

View On Black

Others that I liked from this set:

113/365

I'm creepily sitting in my work parking lot before I have to go into work. I still feel snotty and nasty, but not as bad as yesterday. One more workday and I can have 2 days off.

ECC has gone on their winter holiday, so I have to wait until after the 2nd or 3rd before I have any chance of hearing about placement info. I know they are trying their best to place me where I want to go, but it'd be nice to know sooner than later. I hate the waiting game. I did that for an entire year with the stupid JET program.

View On Black

112/365

Inspiration? Addam's Family. (duh)

Still getting on with my cold. The nettie pot is washing out some nastiness and decongestants are trying there best to empty my ears. But, it's not quite working. I think my fever yesterday was the worst of it. Now I'm on a regiment of decongestant, nettie pot, heating blanket, decongestant, nettie pot, heating blanket, repeat. I got my shift covered for work today because I just needed another day to to the previously mentioned.

My sister is with us this week until Christmas because school is out for her. Is Pokemon back in full swing? That girl is obsessed. She goes from her Pokemon DS game to Pokemon movie to Pokemon computer stuff. I know that in Japan it's never really gone away, but I guess it's made some huge resurgence in the US.

Besides watching her go from one to the other, I'm helping Mama make my favorite christmas treat. Peanut butter balls. They are exactly as described, but dipped in dark chocolate. Homemade are the way to go.
No worries though. My hands are being washed every five seconds. They will be sterile. I promise.

111/365

I woke up today feeling horrid. I lost my voice, couldn't breathe because i'm so clogged up, coughing, and a fever. I've been feeling under the weather lately, but it's all been just normal allergy stuff. Now, it's hit the point where I know I'm full blown sick. Gotta go to the doctor tomorrow. Thankfully my boss is getting my shift covered and I can take another day to rest. I've been in bed all day and I plan to stay here.
Papa wants to make me a hot toddy. Hot apple cider and whiskey. I don't think it'll help, but I'll amuse him.

View On Black

110/365

Minimalism was key today. I couldn't follow up on yesterday's picture. It's my favorite out of my entire 365, and I think it'll be hard to top it. What's so weird is that a couple of people actually that it was a real Olan Mills photo of me. That made me uber happy to hear that. My friend Lee really put the icing on the cake with his reaction. I got a phone call and a message of him just laughing while looking at it. That made me feel good.

109/365

I miss you Olan Mills.

View On Black

108/365

My boss and I watched 80's music videos all day when I was at work today. I love it when he works because we bond over the 80's nostalgia thing. So, when I saw "Simply Irresistible" by Robert Palmer, I knew that was my inspiration for today's picture.
This one was fun and I really like the result. Now I should take advice from a friend and clone myself to make a full picture of me as a dozen Palmer girls. heehee.

107/365

Stephen got a new Gilliam lens. That thing is mighty fun!

106/365

Christmas is getting closer!

And I made plans to finally get together with Erica!!!

105/365

playing with shadows and dim light.

View On Black

104/365

My head has been feeling pretty stopped up and pressure is pushing against my temples and eyes. I think I am getting cedar fever, but who knows. I always have something going on with my respiratory system. So, here is a representation of what my head feels about 95% of the year.

View On Black

103/365

Do you remember those little picture puzzles that you would have to move around to get the pieces in the right place for the picture to form? That's kinda what i had in mind when I did this one. I kinda wish I could print it out and make one to see if I could solve this puzzle.

102/365

Christmas is so close. I can't believe how quick time is going. I've been in my twenties only 6 years, but it seems like I've only been experiencing that for half the time. I'm starting to feel like the "old" crowd. That's the strange part. I have kids coming in to Vulcan to rent movies and they see our painting of Gizmo on the wall. I hear one girl comment to her friend how cute our furby painting is. NOOOOOOO! It's a sad day when 18+ year olds think that gizmo is a furby.

Anywho, still waiting on placement information. I hope to god they give me exactly what I want. If not Kyoto, Osaka is just fine. Or anywhere near Osaka. I won't take anything less. Maybe. We'll see.

101/365

Going along with yesterday, I needed a break today. The most I could do today was roll out of bed and take a picture of me and my camera. The one thing I am proud of though is that this is the first and only photo of me and my camera in the mirror shot. Lots of self portraits are of people in a bathroom holding a camera to take a photo of themselves. I'm guilty of it. I think everyone is. But, in my 365, this is the first blatant camera in your face shot. blech.

100/365

In hindsight, this is lame. I really don't like my 100th picture. I was obsessed with Egypt as a kid and wanted to be an Egyptologist forever. Thinking of putting my face on Isis as a good idea turned out to be a bad idea. Well, lesson learned. This photo is lame and I need to put my thinking cap on for future pictures. My quality has been lacking because i've been in a pretty bad creative slump. I've been working non-stop and the first thing I think of when I get home is sleep and not my pictures. It shows in my photos. I'll try to pick up the slack.

99/365

I got a new 50mm lens. It wasn't intentional either, which is strange. Stephen is getting a new 7D camera for christmas and he's going batty buying all these extra things for the camera. (He's mostly using it for the video function, not the still camera function)
So, he bought a 50mm lens but somehow bought two on accident. I went ahead and got the lens as a christmas present from him in exchange for a 1TB hard drive. So, it was more of a trade off than a christmas present. Whatever. I love the lens.

This was taken with that lens, but Stephen hated the bags under his eyes. So, he asked me to photoshop them out and I went a bit batty. Now I feel like this is a bit overdone and waxy looking in a way. I don't have a good photo of us really and this is as close as I'm probably going to come.

98/365

A lady does have to put her face on in the morning. :)

97/365

This is my great-great grandmother's necklace that came over with her when the emigrated from Germany. Researching the name and similar necklaces, I found that it's a sterling silver production company called Handarbeit. It was manufactured between 1880's to the early 1900's. I love this necklace. I shouldn't wear it just in case I was to lose it. I should keep it safe. I love having family heirlooms.

96/365

I've found the biggest christmas lights! :)

95/365

Dexter is one of my favorite shows. This season (4) has been great and so I kinda just decided to cut myself up. Weird? yes. I found a tutorial that showed how to do this, but honestly he made it so much more difficult than was necessary. So, I took my own route and did it my own way. It turned out almost exactly like the tutorial, but it seems I cut in half all the steps needed to do it. Since my background is black, I also didn't need to be as conscience of my background compared to his white background.

View On Black

94/365

This one was weird to do. It was really easy, but one step required I do a gradient overlay on a mask layer. And it didn't work. I could not figure out what to do. The background is supposed to be a lighter shade of black with the white rain falling a bit more naturally. Mine looks obviously faked. Meh. It was my first try. I'll try again someday in the future.

Sin city Danica?? Not quite.

93/365

Papa has an old 3D camera that he has entrusted to me for it's care. It's an awesome thing. The case is original and I really wish that the film still existed so that I could test out the camera. I don't even know if it works anymore, but it sure would be cool to find out. The thing has so many contraptions on it that it'd take me some time to figure out how to do it.

92/365

I need to figure out how to save the files so they don't lose their detail. This picture has a lot of contrast detail, especially on my face that has gone away from resizing the picture.
Oh well.

91/365

This is my completely unflattering up close picture of my face in an awkward pose. The most literal description ever.

I'm super tired. I have no idea why, but I feel exhausted.
A nap is in order.

90/365

I'm super tired. So, this is the silliest one yet due to me just wanting to go crash out. I made my eyeball it's own planetary body. I guess those can be either two suns from far away or it has two bright stars orbiting it. The fact that I'm discussing the idea of my eyeball as part of an imaginary solar system is silly. I'm going to bed now.

89/365

Warning: scanning your face with you eye open leads to temporary pain and blindness in one eye. Don't do it. This one was fun to do though. I guess I owe that bad Elisha Cuthbert movie a nod for inspiration. Haven't seen it, but the buried alive thing doesn't seem very fun.

We went and saw New Moon tonight. I just want to smash my head into the wall continuously for hours knowing what these die hard twilight fans are going to see in the next film. A baby that eats her from the inside out and a werewolf that is 18 will choose a mate in her baby. Something is wrong with Stephanie Meyer. I read all the books on the planes to and from Japan last year. I left each book on the plane for whatever person got my seat after me. Hopefully they were delighted.

I have my nerdy obsessions, so I'm not going to judge the obsessive twihards. But, it's a bit unnerving they are so young and are looking to Edward Cullen as an attainable character in a man. That's the scary thing.

88/365

mirror, mirror.

We saw Ninja Assassin tonight. More like Ninja Ass. Since when do ninjas whisper to each other when attacking someone? I thought they were supposed to be quiet and silent killers. They contradicted themselves so many times in that movie. The main guy was a part of the Ozunu clan. But, the main character lady kept saying Izunu. The sound EEEE and OHHH sound very different.

Stephen and I were joking that if the ninjas were gay, when they had their silent conversations and whisperings before killing someone, they could say things like "omg he is so not wearing that. Does he realize that makes his ass look fat?" Now say this line while whispering and speaking very fast. Yup, Stephen and I were being 10 years old and laughing our butts off.

There were so many bad one liners the MST3K people would have killed. One like "Did you like it when I stuck her?"
You are asking for it when you put that in a movie and during a "serious" scene.

87/365

The hills are alive with the sound of music...

farm hill music. duh-duh- duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh (in the tune of dueling banjos)

86/365

Thanksgiving eve. I dunno if it was just me and my hypersensitivity to cold or if it WAS just super cold. Either way, I had to double jacket and blanket it up for this picture. I love the farm. It's best on quiet weekends. It's not that I don't love to see my family for the holidays, but it's a great escape when it's just you and the open sky.

85/365

Stephen will figure out how to work a still camera one of these days. He was surprised by the auto focus button. Ah, my award winning director. He knows a thing or two about film cameras, but not still ones. ??
He did get this good shot that's a bit soft. But, it conveys how much fun and how long it's been since i've done a handstand. Whew. That hurt after doing it for 2 minutes straight.

84/365

In the belly of the beast and trying to push falling dvd's back in with my foot. deeerrrrrr.

Hopefully third time's a charm

I'm once again on my way back to Japan with a starting date of February 2010 and onwards. I'm more hoping that placement doesn't come to me until March. I need that time to save some money, especially after I buy a plane ticket. I'm going with a company that has a good reputation by word of mouth and from just general googling, hasn't had any really big major red flags.

I've been promised a Kinki region placement which is even better. That is the area I wanted to go and honestly, if I hadn't found a company that would put me in that exact location, then I was going to just let the Japan thing die. If I hadn't gotten the job, I was going to let it go. It was this is it or this is when I say I'm done. It took me a year to get out of that slump that JET put me in. It was extremely difficult and the effect of failure or the general feeling of failing even though it wasn't your failure, but rather the company's, it still hurt.

So, I let the Japan thing go for a good year. But, it always stayed there at the back of my mind. Once again, after interviewing in San Francisco, I got the job. I was half expecting not to make the cut since I am "a bit reserved." Once I'm with a group of students though, I feel I can be lively. I hope so anyways. I'm not in the game completely yet though. I have to make it through training before I get the full go ahead.

I just hope I can forge some friendships at training that will help me through the year. I want to be able to have friends and people to talk to.

It's a broken record, but leaving behind my talented and lovely boyfriend and my baby dog is going to be extremely difficult. But, in a way, it's like asking Stephen not to make films. I have to do this. I have to try it out for at least the year that will be my contract. Then if the year is up and I can't stand it, I will come home feeling at least I did it. I did what I planned to do for so long. I'm getting much older and 30 is approaching much more quickly than I anticipated. It's kinda scary to think about it.
I'm 26, yet I feel like I have so much to learn. I have so much to do and take care of in my life.

My best friend Brandy wants a family and is already talking of kids. My friends from high school and childhood friends of mine are having children. I feel like "Should I be there too?" Is that where i'm supposed to be in my life? Am I or should I be focusing on a family right now? The answer for me is no. I don't have a job that would support me or a child. At this point, I'm too selfish to be responsible for another life right now. I still have dreams that have yet to be fulfilled for myself. I want to keep traveling. I want to see the world. If that's what the teaching route will give me, then so be it.

I want a job I love. I love Vulcan Video. It's like a family to me at that store. There are things about it that get frustrating, but it falls by the wayside because the job itself is so easy and the people I've met and the things I've experienced with Vulcan have been amazing. They are all good people at that store. I hope to be a vulcanite for life.

Leaving Vulcan too will be difficult. I left the store once for japan and when that didn't work out, they kindly let me back into the fold. I love them for it.

But, really. This is something I need to do and I'm excited and scared all over again. My reservations for what to expect are very low. I think I held JET to a high standard and that's where I went wrong.

So, I'm hoping this third time is the charm. Please God, let it be the time.

83/365

As angelic as I'm ever going to be.
Or even as a fresco painting.

82/365

Homemade christmas lamps. Christmas decorating just around the corner!

81/365

robodanica

80/365

A bit behind, but the next picture will hopefully make up for it.

79/365

I've been messing and picking at my fingers since I was in 2nd grade. It's not the prettiest thing to look at, but it's a part of me. It's deep seeded and I mess with my fingers sometimes without even realizing I'm peeling away a layer of skin. I've noticed my fingers are noticeably raw after an intense movie or especially before interviews and things of that nature. It's the way I let out stress and I really wish I could find a way to quite destroying my hands. I'll never have those pretty fingertips and french nails. Mine are always going to be gnarled and short. I've come to accept it.

78/365

late mornings. errr, mid afternoons.

77/365

Waiting patiently like a good mom would.

76/365

Do you remember the TV show "The Flash?" I wanted to be lightning fast for a long time after I watched that show.

75/365

Kill your Television.