Hipstamatic HumpDay #2 Strong Hall

This is a collection of a few photos of Strong Hall at Missouri State University. I took these while waiting for my philosophy class to start. They were taken with the Hipstamatic app and arranged with the Diptic app, which allows you to arrange several images into one image. The second photo is the same location, but with color. I thought they looked neat, so I decided to share them.

I'm still plugging away at Herodotus (yes, I'm an excrutiatingly slow reader...), but I have to have it finished before Tuesday.  Then we'll start reading The Last of the Wine by Mary Renault. Luckily, next week is Fall Break, so I'll have plenty of time to read it comepletely before it's even due!  Then, in a couple weeks we start Plato's Republic, which I'm very excited about!

Please don't forget to watch the new Cup of Jon video! And subscribe to this blog if you'd like! It helps me know I'm doing something right.

And if you think I'm not doing anything right, you can let me know that as well! 

Well, I'll leave you all alone now... Have a great day!

 Peace!

A Cup of Jon Super Powers (#7)

450 Bottle Rockets!

Good morning! This is a video a few friends and I made a couple years ago for July 4th. We tied about 450 bottle rockets together (sans sticks) and lit them all... what ensued was mayhem. If you're uninterested in seeing the process or hearing our banter, skip to 6 minutes and watch the lighting and insanity.  If you're one who doesn't think it looks like much, right after we lit it, I sprinted to about 25 yards away and the explosions were still beyond the scope of the screen. It was a fun night and my friend, Jason, wanted me to upload it, so I did... Enjoy! ...or don't... but enjoy it!

The Doctor

I'm about to gripe:

Today, I went to the doctor. Basically, it cost me $40 for him to tell me what I've already known. I have high blood pressure because I'm so stressed. Also, he told me what my spots are... Tinea Versicolor. I take two pills and it's gone, but the spots will stay for about a year. No big deal, I don't really care that they're there... I may end up missing them, actually. They're a great ice breaker!

Me: "Hi, I'm Jonathan."

Girl at school: "Hi, I'm (insert random and unconnected name to anyone I know)."

--awkward silence--

Me: "I have spots! See?"

This happens all the time as I'm sure it's happened to you as well. Anyway, he gives me the prescriptions and I say, "I have one more quick question." And he replies, "Well, you're out of time."

Is it just me? Or does that seem quite rude to anyone else?  I was the only person in the entire doctor's office. The waiting room was empty before I came in and after I left... all the doors down the hall for the exam rooms were open and empty. I was the only person and he didn't have time to answer one quick question.  Needless to say, I'm going to find a new doctor. I won't give my money to someone who doesn't care about me...

Mom, you asked for a cup... here it is!

As for the high blood pressure, he gave me a prescription for my stress, not for high blood pressure... the prescription and info page says, "for stress".  This seems odd to me and I refuse to take it. I guarantee it's a placebo to make me think my stress is going away, when in reality, I've only convinced myself to relax because I just took a stress pill.  In my opinion, this sort of issue should be handled in a different manner.  He should have sat there and said, "Hey, stupid! Stop being so stressed! Relax! Take care of this issue inside your head and you'll be fine! Exercise more! Eat better! Stop getting so upset about everything!" I would have responded to this better, believe it or not...

Basically, my first doctor's visit was pretty useless and I don't plan on going back until something else is wrong... it's a serious waste of money to keep going back. My high blood pressure can be fixed by me. I don't need a doctor for that. As for my stress, I just have to live with some amount of stress because of my work and school schedule... and people pressuring me to make videos I don't have time for... just kidding!

Camping this weekend, hopefully...

Danielle's out of town, so it's party time!

I may go camping by myself... I've never actually done that.  It should be perfect camping weather too... clear skies with a low of 37... it's going to be beautiful!

Anyway, have a great day! Drink some tea, get outside, try a new food you've never tried, take time to think about something meaningful and examine why you do the things you do, read a book, and enjoy your life!

go. see. do. live.

Peace!

My confession... I have an addiction...

This may seem a bit awkward... If anything, I don't want you to be judged...
Please don't think anything less of me...
This is quite embarrassing...
but I have an addiciton...
to books.

I have tons of them all around my apartment... every room has books in it... I've got a stack of Archaeology and Nat Geo magazines piled 3 feet high in my bathroom, I've got stacks of books in my livingroom with no bookshelf to house them... some even under my lamps because of lack of space. I hate clutter in my house, but I think book clutter is a different kind of clutter... what say ye?
 Most of the books I own, I haven't been able to read yet, but I've read a little bit in each of them...


Homer's Iliad taken with my iPhone
using Hipstamatic



School keeps me very busy with required reading. We're 6 weeks into the semester and I've already read Homer's Iliad and I have to have Herodotus' The Histories finished by next week, which, if you know anything about those books, is a LOT of reading... my Greek Civ professor is nuts! Next week, we'll read The Last of the Wine by Mary Renault, then we'll read Xenopohon's Persian Expedition. Reading all of that and taking a Critical Thinking class and learning an ancient language, Hebrew, is very time-consuming while working 40 hours a week...



Even so, I still feel the need to constantly buy books... even if I know it's going to be a very long time until I can actually read them.

I even subscribe to the Library of America, which sends me a beautiful American classic every month... it makes me happy...

and here's the kicker of the whole shebang: 

Lately, I've been having a few health issues and those closest to me have been telling me for months that I need to go to the doctor. I've refused because I hate spending money on doctors... why? because i want to buy books... Today, Danielle finally told me, "if you make a doctor's appointment, I'll get you a new bike pump and a new book..." immediately, my interest was peaked. I pulled out my insurance card and we got to calling doctor's offices. I set up an appointment and off we went to Barnes & Noble. To think that I wouldn't go to the doctor for my health problems until I was promised a book says a lot for my addiction...

By the way, I got TWO books I've been wanting for a while, one about Celtic myth and the other about Norse myth... neither of which I know anything about... other than what I learned from the Thor comics. Thor, son of Odin (the Zeus counterpart), god of thunder, I believe... big hammer... badass... and Loki, evil brother of Thor... that's it.
Anyway, they'll sit on my shelf until i get the chance to read for pleasure again after the semester is over...

Despite all of this, I'm going to try to get a video to you this weekend... no promises though... if anything, it may just be a conglomeration of various random things I've recorded over the last couple months, such as the Civil War cannon demonstration we went to at Wilson's Creek Battlefield recently...

Take care! Enjoy a great cup of tea (or coffee, but tea's healthier and tastier so nyah!), get outside (especially in this beautiful mild weather while it lasts! Try your hand at geocahcing, rent a canoe, go camping, ride a bike, or go for a hike! you can even go for a scenic drive! check out an article Danielle wrote about a weekend local roadtrip at http://wwww.examiner.com/road-trip-travel-in-springfield/weekend-roadtrip it says Springfield roadtrip, but it applies for anywere), just enjoy your life and relax and experience something new and cool as often as possible!
Peace!

Hipstamatic HumpDay #1 "In the Kitchen..."

Welcome to the first installment of Hipstamatic HumpDay!
I know I added a bunch of photos yesterday and I was going to start this next week, but i couldn't wait. This is going to be another collection of photos. I haven't decided whether or not to make these Hipstamatic HumpDays a post with a collection or a single photo. Which would you prefer? Leave your answer in the comments below!
Also, I apologize to those who are my friends on my facebook... you've probably already seen these photos.

These photos were taken while I was at work. I was letting the milkman into the dining commons to deliver the milk and decided to try out the old-timey look on the Hipstamatic app.. these are the results...
I love the combination of the low light, stainless steel, and nasty floors and walls.
These were taken with the Helga Viking lens, Float film, and no flash gel.

ALSO... I'm working on doing something a little different with A Cup of Jon videos.. not a major revamp, just something a little different on my end.  School is keeping me busier than I imagined... I haven't given up on the videos, but I just honestly don't have the time to edit... it takes about 3 hours of editing for a 3 minute clip, if that gives you any notion of the time required...  a new one will be up soon though...

Springfield Nature Center in Hipstamatic!

I recently read a tweet from someone I follow that stated basially that people use the Hipstamatic iPhone app because their lives look uninteresting unless they use Hipstamatic. It, of course, made me laugh because I've become a bit of obsessed with the app. If anyone is wondering what Hipstamatic is, it's an app on the iPhone that allows you to choose the "film" style, "lens" style, and "flash" style. You can mix and match to get hundreds of different looks in your photos. For this particular set, I used the John S. lens with Pistil film and no flash gel. The black and white photos used the John S. lens with BlacKeys SuperGrain film and no flash gel. I kept it simple this time because I was hiking with some friends and I think they were getting annoyed with my constant stopping to take photos. Next time I go alone, I'll experiment with other combinations. By the way, right now, I'm listening to Blues Traveler... just thought I'd let you know... so much talent...

Reid "thinking"?

Reid and Kaley...