Mexico Outreach

Hey guys,

Just wanted to let you all know that I am leaving for Mexico this Saturday with APU's Mexico Outreach. Please pray for us while we are down there. I will be back next Friday (April 2). Have a great week!

Street Photography

Here is my latest Photography 1 Assignment; Street Photography. I thought I would share with all you wonderful people. These photos where taken in Hollywood and Venice Beach. You can always find some interesting people roaming around those areas. Enjoy!

It is now March!!

Venice Beach

ohh hello errrbody, I bet you have been wondering what Ryan has been up to since his last post. Well I am here to help you out! Let's see... where should I begin? Well the reason why I haven't updated recently is because I have been working on my RAC portfolio. For those of you who don't remember what that is it's a portfolio that all the Art majors have to make compiled of the all the art classes I have taken while in college. Quite the process but that has been occupying most of my time. Luckily, that is all done now and it just needs to be processed to see if I have passed or not.

When I have been able to get some free time from working on my portfolio I have been taking pictures for my photography class. This latest assignment is called Street Photography, which is taking candid pictures of people in public places. I have gone to Venice Beach and Hollywood because those places are filled with interesting people. I feel like a creepy stalker though taking pictures of people I don't even know. I was able to develop the first two rolls I have shot and it looks like I have taken some good pictures, so far. I am excited to see how prints are gonna turn out.

Also, it is official, I am going to Mexico over spring break with the Mexico Outreach program here at APU. I know this is going to be a life changing experience especially since I have never done anything like this before. I am on Team VBS, so I'll be able to play with little kids. Please keep us in your prayers.

Lastly, Jared is coming home this next week for his spring break! I am excited to see him and JR, who will be down for the weekend! It is going to be a fun weekend filled with excitement and adventures. haha. I can't wait!

Well that is about it for this post. Until next time!

Photography 1 Assignment.

Here is my first assignment for Photography for all of those who are interested. The point was to capture shapes, (whether geometric or organic) patterns, and/or lines.

Anna Howard Shaw Day

Yesterday was Anna Howard Shaw Day (30 Rock joke) or some other may know it as Valentine's Day. Molly and I planned on having a Disneyland and Rock Harbor day but plans did not work out as planned for us. We drove down to the land of Disney (which was super crowded) but it turned out that it was a block out day for me so that plan was not going to work out. We roamed around Downtown Disney for a bit trying to figure out what we were going to do until church. We decided to go on a little adventure to find the nearest Chic-fil-a or "Chick-filla" as Molly calls it. Neither of us have ever been there before and we always hear people talk about it so we wanted to find out what the hype is about it. There was one about 15 minutes from our current location so we decided to make the trek over. As we made it closer to our destination it was not looking promising since there was only one car in the parking lot and as we drove past the front door to scope it out we see that it is closed on Sunday! So that was a Chic-Failure. We ended up going to Rubio's and making it to church about an hour early. Rock Harbor was Amazing as usually. I forgot how much I missed it. I really wish it was closer so that I could go more often. After we enjoyed a wonderful church service we decided to go see Valentine's Day movie but of coarse knowing our luck the time we choose was sold out but we were able to make it to a later showing at another theater. That pretty much was the sum of my Anna Howard Shaw Day. The lesson of the day was that you can't count on anything because they will let you down except for church/Jesus. Haha yep anyways I hope your Anna Howard Shaw Day or Valentine's Day or whatever you celebrate was a successful one!

Keeping Busy.

Today has been a long day in the dark room. My first project for Photography class is due this week. The demo days were pretty overwhelming because there are a lot of steps and everything is pretty sensitive. In the dark room, there is a closet that is pitch black where you have to take the roll of film out of the canister and into a container all based off of touch. It's an interesting experience. After that you have to develop the film which is exposing the film to different chemical liquids so that we can use it to print. If that is successful then you can start making prints which is what I have been doing all day. Making proof sheets, dodging, burning and basically anything to make the prints look decent has been my challenge of the day. I have gone through a lot of paper and I am not 100% satisfied with my final prints but it is my first time. I will try and post them when I get a chance.

This past weekend, I did my first APU Azusa Food Bank Ministry service. It was a rainy morning and we went to Foothill church which is just down the street. I got assigned to washing tables and then folding clothes for the homeless to go through and pick out what they want. After that I cleaned dishes (I realized that I kind of like washing dishes. haha). Then once we opened the doors to the homeless people, I served salad and pudding to them. It was eye opening experience because I never gave much thought to a homeless person and it made me thankful for how much God has provided for me. We are all blessed. All the volunteers were pretty cool. They were all freshmen except for the leaders. haha. I feel like such a newbie ever since I transferred. Next time we are suppose to go help at another church so it will be interesting to see how they help out those less fortunate.

Also, I finally joined 24 hour fitness! I am going to try to go at least 3 times a week but so far these first days of having the membership have been busy. I might have to reevaluate my goal but hopefully I will be able to get into the groove of things and make time for it.

Alright that is pretty much it on this end. Hope things are going well in your neck of the woods.

Signing Up.

It is now February and things have been going well for me since the last post. A quick recap of my last weekend consisted of going home for the night because of a doctors appointment, running errands, going to Benihana's to celebrate Molly Miller's birthday (which was fun and delicious!) and then a day devoted to homework. As for my goals, reading the bible 3x a weeks has started off to a good start but I have not been able to join 24 hour fitness yet. There is a special deal that you can buy at Costco for the gym membership but I was unaware that Costco does not take Visa credit. Hopefully I'll be able to sort that out this weekend. Also this weekend I signed up for Azusa Food Bank Ministry with APU which starts saturday. The ministry is at a local church which basically helps serve food to the community. This takes place 2 saturdays each month (working on my MAS credit). I already know the girl that is in-charge because I met her earlier in my swimming class today. I've also finished my Mexico Outreach applications and just need to get that turned in by the end of this week. The application asked a lot of deep questions that I don't normally think about on my own. Some of them were 3 great passions in my life, 2 strengths and how they have been reaffirmed in the last 6 months, 2 weaknesses and how God is working on them, and examples of how you have seen Jesus Christ love you, and how you have shown His love to someone else. Pretty deep stuff so it took me little bit of thought to answer those. I am starting to enjoy this semester more and more as new opportunities arise. I was worried it was going to be hard with 5 of my friends missing (I realized that is a lot to lose for 1 semester) but I am putting God in control & I am excited for what is next!

"May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word." 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17