On the drive home from my classes at UCF, I witnessed one of the most glorious sunsets this evening, golden light dappling through the clouds, illuminating them like heaven was glowing somewhere in the sky, if only I could be a few miles westward and take an elevator up one of the downtown skyscrapers.

Rose tendrils swept across the cloudless areas, and I found myself struggling to locate high ground, resenting the flatness of Florida until coming across one of its many lakes. Couples were walking arm in arm around the water’s edge, crickets chirruping and frogs croaking out to one another. The reflection of light against the placid surface was breathtaking, and the scent of spicy smoke hung on the air, both bringing forth faded memories of childhood.

Wistful and close to my neighborhood that I left at 5, I decided to meander into it, but I couldn’t even recognize my old house. Strange, how so much of the past is blurred, the details forever lost...

Picasa is a web album site/program combo offered by Google for organizing photos and hosting them for free online. The photo organizing program has been incredibly valuable for quickly dividing photos into separate folders and posting them on this blog, and while I generally opt to independently host all images featured here, the Picasa program is highly integrated with the Picasa website, allowing you to instantly upload individual photos or groups of photos from within the program itself. If you have a Google account, the integration is even more complete, since your Picasa profile is automatically linked.

The interface of the Picasa program is streamlined and highly intuitive, allowing you to effortlessly browse from photo to photo, and the ability to edit them on the go is priceless. While the editing options are not as detailed as what Photoshop offers, the tools that I use most often are listed and work flawlessly for touching up photos. Instead of tinkering around...

January 3rd, Leu Gardens:
Back in Orlando and having lounged around like a sloth for a few days, I took a leisurely stroll through Leu Gardens, an inner city oasis of exotic plant life and meandering paths. The camellias have been out in full bloom and are lovely to behold, as are the roses and the many other varieties of flowers. Instead of rambling on with prose similar to that read in Walden, I will provide visuals that speak much more without words.

January 6th, UCF Orientation:
I'm registering for...

I haven't posted since the 24th of December. This is supposed to be a daily journal section, and I decided on that largely for my own benefit - the ability to reflect back on previous happenings with actual evidence (in the form of posts) instead of relying on memory alone, which is frankly not very reliable. So here's an update on everything that has happened since the 24th, while events are reasonably fresh in my mind.

December 24th, Christmas Eve:
Some family came over for a dinner celebration. My uncle Jimmy...

Written 12/24/08, Wednesday
Feeling:
Music: Rachel's - Rhine & Courtesan

Raaarrg. I have received my haircut at Great Clips after a month and a half of immense shagginess, verified by the stylist exclaiming, “Boy, you have a lot’a hair on your head, don’tcha?”, picked up some Hallmark Christmas cards next door for family members so that I don’t feel like a total jackass after receiving real gifts from them, and scurried across the street into Publix to snatch a gift card that will not sit in my mother’s purse for years (cough, Kohl’s). Oops, I can almost taste the sweat that all of the bodies surrounding me have collected in Florida’s 85 degree, high humidity Winter. I guess there are other extreme procrastinators in the world.

After locating the only line with the gift card shelf and swiftly securing my position there, this man in front of me kept glancing back while I was browsing through...