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I hadn’t checked my PO Box mail in quite some time, so I made the trek down to Stanford campus in the mid afternoon. I first stopped by Keeble and Shucat in Palo Alto. Three weeks ago at Joe and Cam’s wedding in Fremont, I misplaced one of my lens caps, and I found out that my D30’s eyepiece was very loose. So, at Keep It and Shove It (my affectionate name for K&S), I picked up those two accessories to the tune of $17. It was necessary, but that’s stealing, to be honest!

Fall Quarter is in full gear here at Stanford. Sigh… another year’s gone by. While walking through White Plaza, I was reminiscing about my first stroll to the Post Office eight years ago in 1993. Eight years! Time has flown by so quickly. I can still remember what it was like being a freshman, wide-eyed and naive, not to mention ultra-studious! Sometimes I wish I were back in school, but other times, I’m glad that I’ve graduated and moved on. People used to tell me that the college years are the best. What do you think?

Rita was mentioning on her web site about living out the best years of one’s life. She’s absolutely right. I shouldn’t pine over years passed. What counts is the here and now — there’s no fate but what we make, right?.

College, while somewhat structured, is basically a bucket of Halloween candy. You never know what you’re going to get with each coming quarter or semester. Sometimes, it’s the yummy Krackel bars, but sometimes it’s those pasty and yucky Valentine heart candies. Working life, on the other hand, yields few surprises and is like fast food. You know what you’re going to be doing (or getting) day in, day out. Well… at least that’s the case for most people that I know.

Sigh… maybe I’m just someone who craves adventure, the unknown, and new things.

I was passing by one of the buildings along Main Quad when I spied Herbert Linderberger, my old CIV/Humanities professor. I have to admit it, I figured that he’d be a goner by now, as he taught me eight years ago when I was that wide-eyed freshman. But no! Herbert’s still kicking and chatting it up with a bunch of Stanford women. Last I remember, he was appointed to the head of some English association. Guess he’s back in the teaching saddle again. He always reminded me of the evil Emperor from Return of the Jedi!

Elliot Sather rode by me when I was walking from the Art Department. He’s back as a student at Stanford. Seeing him ride by made me feel like I had been transported back to my University days. I was a student again, with a camera in hand, saying hello to a friend. Man, what I would give to be a student photographer again. Instead of the Teahouse or coding, I think I would have been out on the prowl each day, looking for that singular shot. After four years, I bet that I would have amassed quite the phtographic collection. Who needs a yearbook when you have something like that?

At the Art Department, I saw a flyer for Cafe Nite on the bulletin board. Last year, I went to the French House for Cafe Nite, and I felt like I was a fossil. I could no longer could relate to these people, and I no longer knew anybody there. It was a weird feeling… one that I’m sure Eric’s friend, Dan, is experiencing right now living in the French House as a 26-27 year old senior. His roommate was a junior-high student in 1994, our sophomore year!

In Main Quad, those ME students were at it again with their cardboard go-carts. There were two wedding happenings in Main Quad at the time too, making things look and feel just a bit extraordinary. The sky was bright, and I didn’t have my ND filter, so I took some double shots of the action, one for the crowd and another for the sky. An ND filter will help you compensate for the exposure difference between the sky and crowd. With two pictures, I used Photoshop to merge them together into one photograph that exposed for both the sky and crowd. I didn’t spend too much time on the photographs, but you can still see how effective this technique is in the photos below:

This weekend, I’m going to be backpacking along the Skyline to Sea trail with Rae. I’ll probably lug all my camera equipment with me in the hopes of getting that perfect shot. See y’all in a week! I’m out.