Less stuff, more happiness

Here's another really great TED talk, and it completely justifies all this picture scanning...

How to Start a Movement

I did scan some pictures today, but I kind of feel like we need a break from that.  Instead, I thought I'd post a TED talk I watched today.  I love TED talks.

For those not familiar with TED:
TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design...

This one is on "How to Start a Movement" and is only about 3 minutes long.

Still Digitizing Life - Day 4

I think we're about one-third of the way there...

Tonight I scanned 124, bringing us to a total of 419.  We're currently in the midst of Sophomore year.  There was a lot of Highstepper activity.

Highstepper Kidnapping:

Highstepper camp:

 

Highsteppers in football season:

Highsteppers in competition season:

My friends came over for my 16th birthday (it was a weeknight - I must have cool parents):

And one time I stuck a basketball hoop suction cup thing to my forehead - when I tried to take it off, it basically gave me a giant hickey.  This is what my forehead looked like for TWO WEEKS:

Digitizing Life - Day 3

Today was a bit of a light scanning day.  I scanned 65, which brings us to a total of 295.

Tonight, we jumped back to Freshman Year - 1996 (15 years ago!).

Me and Abby on the first day of school (we're still friends - I helped throw her a baby shower yesterday).  Everyone (really EVERYONE) should recognize the plaque behind us where the hidden key was...

McCullough Caillies - this was at Super Halftime.  I'm sure I felt really cool because Lauren was a Highstepper officer.

I think this was our last ski trip before someone finally mentioned they didn't really like it, and the rest of us agreed.

Me and my best friends Pam, Abby, and Abbey - we did an ensemble together.  I have dozens of pictures of the 4 of us.

And my last Boni's dance recital - I'd been doing them since I was probably 3.  That's little Kathryn on the bottom right!  (And again with Abby and Pam - other Abbey wasn't in ballet or else I'm sure she'd be in the picture.)

Digitizing Life - Day 2

The first album had 230 pics, which have now all been scanned.  Which means I was a very aggressive scanner today - 148 total today.

Here's my senior year Homecoming dress (one of my faves):

 My Grandpa came to my high school graduation:

Doesn't Chris Tomlin play at everyone's high school graduation party?

When given the option, always dress in costume.

80s YL club junior year:

Girl Scouts (senior year):

70s (senior year):

Cowgirls (YL camp after senior year):

Bandits (YL camp after senior yr):

Nerd prom (UM Army after senior year - my date Dan made me a corsage out of paper napkins):

Digitizing Life

My parents had given me most of my "treasures" that I had left behind in my old room when they moved out of their house 2 years ago. They recently emptied their storage unit and gave me my last 2 boxes. I had no clue what was going to be in these, but it ends up that they were full of old books, CDs, and photo albums...none of which I was particularly missing.

I started unloading and decided pretty quickly to donate most of the books to the library. And then decided to put the CDs in iTunes and donate most of those to the library as well (and in the process inspired Jay to do the same with most of his DVDs).

And then there were the photo albums...Well I just decided that October is going to be the month of photo scanning, and then I'm going to THROW THEM AWAY! That's right - in the trash.

We live in the digital age people! Jay and I never put a CD in a player - we listen to music off the computer or an iPod. We don't use DVDs - we watch movies off of the Apple TV, which comes off of the computer. We don't read books because we just don't read books. And we have never gotten out a photo album to look at pictures. They will be more useful when digital - more organized, searchable, emailable, and takes up no space! And you can always reprint if you need a physical copy.

So tonight was Night 1. I scanned 82. There are 6 albums, and I'm guessing on average they have 250 pics for a total of 1,500. At this rate, I think I can do it. 18 nights of scanning...

I decided I should post a few each time I scan. IT'S SO EASY NOW THAT THEY'RE DIGITIZED!

Here is Sophomore year Homecoming...check out those mums! I'll have to find pics of subsequent years because they just got bigger from here...


And another...I like this dress...


My last dance recital before quitting ballet. I was a doll in the party scene of the Nutcracker. I got to ride in that box with the candy canes on it onto the stage with my matching doll partner, and then we came out of the box to do our little dance.


Kath's bday in 1998. I think everything we are wearing in this is Abercrombie. And check out Lauren's overalls!


This is me and my friend Ashley at UM Army the summer before our Junior year. I just wanted to put this one on here because I lifeguarded this summer, and it's the most tan I've ever been.


And Junior year Homecoming (I've decided I should put one up from each because I like my dresses!). Once again benefiting from the lifeguard tan...


Between his hair and my socks, this picture is pretty amazing (in the mall parking lot getting ready to leave for Wilderness).